March 24, 2008
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Complete Midweek Notes in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Spartans will get set for another tough challenge during the midweek when they travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face the SEC's Tennessee in a Tuesday midweek game. The Vols, who are 13-5 overall, are receiving votes in national polls, thanks in large part to their first-ever sweep of LSU. The Spartans are 1-3 all-time against the Volunteers.
Realigning Rivals
After the trip to Tennessee, the Spartans will play two mid-week games against one of their most familiar rivals in Presbyterian. The Blue Hose, who are 5-10 overall, are also in the first year of the four-year transitional period to Division I. The Spartans and Blue Hose have faced 20 times, with each team winning 10 meetings. The two squads split their two games in 2007. Wednesday's game at Harley Park will be available on ASun.TV and through Gametracker on UpstateSpartans.com.
Bowley Keeps Rolling
Senior Kyle Bowley kept rolling along as the Spartans' ace, throwing a 140-pitch complete-game against North Florida to earn his fourth win of the season. Bowley labored through the first three innings, allowing three runs and five hits in that span, but settled down to allow just two unearned runs in the final six innings, as he finished with a career-high 11 strikeouts. He allowed 11 hits, four walks and five runs in the game, as he surpassed his previous-best in strikeouts, when he fanned nine at North Georgia on April 22, 2006. In the process he moved into fifth in career strikeouts with 146, passing Garrett Holmes, who struck out 144 from 2002-05. He also won his 16th career game to take hold of fifth by himself on the Upstate career list, passing Don Brock (1987-88) and his 209.1 innings pitched moved him into fourth in school history.
Bowley is currently tied for the conference lead in wins (4) and complete games (2) with Florida Gulf Coast's Richard Bleir and he is alone at the top of the A-Sun in both innings pitched (36.0) and strikeouts (35). He is third in ERA (1.75)
.500
Three Spartans may have wanted to stay back in Jacksonville after hitting .500 or better against North Florida in the three-game set. Senior Casey Rivers, who snapped a 5-for-36 (.139) slump, was the team leader during the set, going 7-for-12 (.583) with two doubles, five runs and two RBIs. Junior Eric Guillen stayed hot, hitting .538 (7-for-13) with two runs, a double and three RBIs and freshman Blake Green hit .500 (7-for-14) with three runs. As a team, the Spartans hit .359 during the three-game set.
Spartans Win First Game Against North Florida
A five-run second inning and the fourth quality start of the season from senior Kyle Bowley helped guide the USC Upstate baseball team to its fifth straight win, 12-5, and first in 23 all-time meetings with North Florida on Friday night. The Spartans met the Ospreys for the first time since 2005 when both schools were members of the Peach Belt Conference. The Ospreys, in their third year of the reclassification process to DI, were a DII powerhouse, winning the Peach Belt Conference six times in seven years in the conference and finishing as national runner-up in 2005.
Stegbauer Stymies Asheville
A seemingly effortless 70-pitch, six-innings worth of work by freshman Robert Stegbauer and six late-inning runs helped pace Upstate to its fourth straight win, 6-4, over UNC Asheville in non-conference action on Tuesday night. Stegbauer picked up his first collegiate win as he tossed six innings of work, allowing seven hits, a walk and an unearned run. He struck out none, but impressively forced nine groundouts and eight flyouts and let a solid Spartan defense do the work for him. His ERA dropped from 8.40 to 6.00 as he recovered from the worst start of his career last week at Georgia Southern, where he allowed seven runs.
A Real Record-Setter
Already the school's all-time leader in complete games (12), shutouts (4) and strikeouts (228), senior Scott Eckard added one more notch to his belt on Monday when he picked up his first career win in relief against Campbell for his 20th career win. The hard-throwing lefty passed Eric Hunter (1986-89) for the most wins in school history with 19 wins when he got out of a one-out, runner on second jam in the ninth inning of a suspended game by getting a fly out and a strikeout. The Spartans quickly scored the winning run for Eckard in the bottom of the ninth, giving him another school record.
Now Eckard will roll into this weekend's start looking to etch his name into one more spot in Upstate's record book, needing just 6.2 innings pitched to pass Trevor Berryhill (2002-05) for the top slot in career innings pitched. Berryhill threw 278.1 innings in his four years.
Casey At The Bat
Senior Casey Rivers has been a pleasant surprise this season for Upstate. Currently third on the team with a .329 batting average, Rivers has a team-high six doubles and nine RBIs this season. He also is tied for the team lead with two stolen bases. A senior from Hudson, Mass., Rivers has taken over the second base position thanks his series against ETSU, hitting .583 (7-for-12) with six runs, two doubles and three RBIs to pace the Spartans as they took two of three games from the Bucs. Even though he cooled off to go 5-for-36 in the next 10 games, he rewarded the Spartan coaching staff for sticking with him at second base by adding another 7-for-12 series with five runs and two doubles at North Florida.
Runny's Run
Senior Andrew Runion has been on a tear for the last 14 games, hitting .373 (22-for-59) with four homers and 12 RBIs. The Simpsonville, S.C., native has recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him from the lineup for three games and has re-assumed the role of the team's heart. In the three-game set with Mercer, Runion hit home runs in back-to-back games. Against Campbell, Runion became the 11th player in school history to reach 100 career RBIs, as he went 6-for-13 with four runs scored during the three-game sweep of the Camels. Against UNC Asheville, Runion went 3-for-4 with a run and three RBIs, also socking his 42nd career double to move into a tie for second in school history.
Rookie Royalty
Freshmen Keith Bisgounis, Blake Green and A.J. Clark have helped pace the Upstate offense during the last 13 games. Bisgounis, who has started nine games and appeared in 10 games in that span has gone 13-for-37 (.351) with eight runs scored and six RBIs. He also has four doubles. Green is hitting a team-high .385 (20-for-52) with nine runs, two doubles and four RBIs. He also has a stolen base. Clark is hitting .341 (14-for-41) with five runs and seven RBIs in 11 games. He delivered a big blow with a two-RBI single against UNC Asheville in the Spartans' four-run sixth.
Morgan's Mastery
Junior Phillip Morgan has continued to thrive early in the season, as the catcher is currently ranked among Atlantic Sun Conference leaders in RBIs. Hitting .304 in 22 starts, Morgan is currently tied for third in the conference in RBIs with 24. Morgan, after going 1-for-17 in a four-game stretch at Mercer and Georgia Southern, saw his bat heat up again on March 12 at Georgia Southern as he went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer, a run and two RBIs and followed that by going 2-for-4 with three runs and an RBI on Friday against Campbell.
Eckard's Excellence
Senior Scott Eckard tied the 19-year-old USC Upstate record for career wins on March 9 at Mercer as he posted his 19th career victory. It was a masterful performance from the left-hander, as he pitched 8 1/3 innings, allowing just two runs and six hits in the game. He struck out four. After walking the bases loaded with two outs in the first inning, Eckard showed no signs of wildness in the rest of the game, allowing just six more baserunners.
Coming off an injury that limited him during the preseason and the fall, Eckard struggled in his first two outings of the year before his dominating performance against the Bears.
Walking-Off With A Sweep
Two walk-off wins highlighted Monday afternoon for the USC Upstate baseball team, as Upstate posted its first Atlantic Sun Conference series sweep in school history, defeating Campbell, 5-4, in the completion of a suspended game and finished with a 6-5 win in the second game at Harley Park. The Spartans defeated Campbell, 13-2, on Friday in the first game of the series.
In the conclusion of a game from Saturday, sophomore Jimmy Tanner singled in freshman Blake Green with the winning run in a 5-4 game in the bottom of the ninth inning to start off the festivities on Monday afternoon. In the second game, senior Kyle Bowley barreled home with two outs in the 10th inning to score on a passed ball and lift the Spartans to the sweep.
The Back-To-Back Jack Jinx?
Upstate head coach Matt Fincher may start asking batters who come up to the plate after home runs to bunt. In the 17-8 loss to Georgia Southern on March 12, senior Andrew Runion hit a monster shot to left field and junior Phillip Morgan followed with a blast to center field in the fifth inning.Runion and Morgan's back-to-back shots are the first for Upstate since Josh Clark and Bret Story hit consecutive dingers on March 12, 2006, exactly two years before, in a 17-7 loss to UNC Pembroke. Runion and Morgan's shots were the first time the Spartans have hit back-to-back homers as a Division I program.
Never Sweeter Than The First Time
Senior Kyle Bowley and sophomore Matt Branham each posted quality starts by throwing eight innings, allowing USC Upstate to heat up and sweep East Tennessee State, 11-1 in eight innings in the first game and 8-3 in the second game, as Upstate won its first Atlantic Sun Conference games in school history at Cardinal Park on March 1. Coming off an injured hamstring that kept him from the lineup for three games, all Spartan losses, senior Andrew Runion paced the team with a 4-for-9 day at the plate, including a double, three RBIs and two runs. Junior Eric Guillen thrived in the No. 8 slot after starting the first five games of the year at the top of the order in the No. 2 slot, went 4-for-7 with two runs scored.
Bowley Rolls
Senior Kyle Bowley showed the ability to be a DI ace early this season, embarking on the most effective back-to-back starts in his career in his first two starts. Against New Jersey Tech on opening night, Bowley was spectacular, striking out seven batters in the first three innings and cruising through seven innings of work, retiring seven in a row at one point. He finished the game with eight strikeouts against just one walk, falling one shy of his career-high of nine strikeouts. In his second start, Bowley was even better, pitching a complete-game, eight-inning five-hitter against East Tennessee State, allowing just one run and striking out six.
Bowley has thrown back-to-back starts allowing just one run three times in his career, although he had never thrown more than 12 combined innings the other two times. As a sophomore, Bowley pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings in a win against Lander on April 10 and then allowed two earned runs in 8 1/3 innings in a loss against North Florida on April 17 in the only stretch of his career where he allowed fewer earned runs in more innings in back-to-back starts.
Three Earn All-Tournament Honors
Three USC Upstate players earned all tournament honors after the Spartans finished second at the Courtyard by Marriott Baseball Classic at Harley Park with a 2-1 record. Junior Phillip Morgan led the way, posting a .462 batting average and adding two runs and four RBIs in the three games. Sophomore Jimmy Tanner hit .375 with a run and an RBI to earn a slot on the team and senior Kyle Bowley also garnered a slot on the team with a .286 average at the plate and a 1-0 record and a 1.29 ERA on the mound.
Already At The Top Of The List
Senior pitcher Scott Eckard enters the 2008 season already having written his name all over the Upstate record book. He struck out seven in a 10-4 win over Armstrong Atlantic State on April 21, 2007 to give him 206 career strikeouts to become the school's strikeout king. Eckard surpassed former Spartan Brandon Williams, who compiled 202 strikeouts from 2003-06 and is currently in the minor leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. It was even more impressive that Eckard was very effective in the win since he was making his first start since an emergency appendectomy 10 days earlier. Eckard finished the season the school's all-time leader in complete games (12), shutouts (4) and strikeouts (212).
A Summer Superstar
Senior Kyle Bowley was named to the National team in the Coastal Plains League All-Star game, finishing second during the All-Star Game's Home Run Derby and earning the game's Offensive MVP award. Bowley, a first baseman for the Stingers, hit four homers during the Home Run Derby at Columbia's Capitol City Stadium. In the All-Star game, Bowley came on as a sub in the top of the sixth inning and keyed a five-run rally with a no-out double that drove in a run from third. He scored two batters later on a single. In the seventh inning, he added another RBI single up the middle with no outs to give the National team its final run in a 9-3 victory. Bowley finished the game 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored to earn the Offensive MVP honor.
Nowak Moving Up The Chain
Former USC Upstate baseball star Chris Nowak has continued to shine during his professional baseball career, as he led the Montgomery Biscuits to its second-straight Class AA Southern League Championship in 2007. The 6-4 infielder was named the unanimous Southern League Championship Series MVP after hitting .611 (11-for-18) with three home runs during the series. Nowak finished his first full season at Double-A with a .304 batting average, seven homers and 55 RBIs. He also stole 18 bases and added a hefty .396 on-base percentage. Nowak is expected to begin this season in AAA Durham for the Devil Rays.
Quite The Streak
Head coach Matt Fincher has helped at least one Spartan in each of the last four seasons to go pro, including two players after the 2007 season. Chris Nowak, now in the Devil Rays chain, started the string in 2004 and Eric Davis continued the string in 2005, when he played a season for an independent league team, the Amarillo Dillas. Brandon Williams was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 2006 season and he is entering his third season in pro ball. He went 1-2 with a 2.53 ERA pitching mainly out of the bullpen for the State College in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. In 2007, both Bret Story and Bradley Blanks signed pro contracts after the season. Story, who was signed as a free agent with Texas, played his first season in the Arizona League. Blanks signed a pro contract with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League.
A History of Upsets
In his decade at the helm, head coach Matt Fincher's clubs proved a thorn in the side of many of the best baseball teams in Division II. Fincher's Spartans have beaten 48 teams ranked in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine Top 30 and 20 wins have come against teams in the top 10. The Spartans even pulled off historic wins on March 23, 2003, when Upstate downed top-ranked Kennesaw State, 8-7, and on March 18, 2006 when Upstate beat top-ranked Georgia College & State University, 11-1. In all, the Spartans won at least one game against a team inside the top 25 in each of Fincher's years with the program and have won at least one game against a team ranked in the top 10 in each of the last five years.
Harley Park
Since opening in 2004, Harley Park has been no picnic for opposing teams to enter. The 500-seat complex has helped make Upstate a formidable force in Division II before moving up to Division I in 2008. In five seasons at Harley Park, the Spartans have produced a 81-49 (.623) record, with 19 of those wins coming against teams ranked in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30.
