University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
East Tennessee State
Bucs Overpower Spartans In Series Finale, 12-5
3/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 2, 2008
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Senior Casey Rivers (Hudson, Mass./Hudson) tied a career-high with three hits and became the first player in the USC Upstate baseball team's Division I era to post two extra-base hits in a game, but Upstate fell in the series finale, 12-5, to ETSU on Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Park.
Rivers finished the day 3-for-5 with two doubles, a run and an RBI to lead the Spartans (4-4 overall, 2-1 A-Sun) and junior Phillip Morgan (Campobello, S.C./Spartanburg Methodist) added a 2-for-4 game with a run and two RBIs, plus he went deep for the second time on the year.
Upstate jumped out with two runs in the top of the first inning with junior Kyle Simpson (Lyman, S.C./Byrnes) reaching on an error to lead off. Rivers followed with a single through the right side. Simpson scored on a balk to move Rivers to second, where he scored on a single from Morgan with one out.
The Bucs (1-6 overall, 1-2 A-Sun) were able to tie the score in the second thanks to a two-run homer from Nick Belcher. Both teams were held down from there until the fifth, as sophomore Brian Dempsey (Montverde, Fla./East Ridge) doubled to left with one out and senior Kyle Bowley (Apopka, Fla./Apopka) added an infield single. Simpson followed with an opposite-field single to score Dempsey.
The Bucs answered with three runs on two hits, two walks and a wild pitch to take a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth. The Spartans closed within one when Morgan connected on a solo homer in the sixth, but ETSU used five hits and an Upstate error to score four runs in the sixth and take a 9-4 lead.
The Spartans got another run in the seventh when Simpson walked with two outs, stole second and scored on a double to right field from Rivers. ETSU closed the scoring with three more runs in the eighth, using a homer from Derek Trent to score two runs.
The Bucs were paced by three hits and two RBIs from Anthony Russell and Troy Mendez added a 2-for-4 game with two runs and two RBIs. Ryan Self, Belcher, Danny Petro and Ben Allen each added two hits with Self, Petro and Allen each scoring twice.
Ty Sarchet (1-1) earned the win for the Bucs as he pitched five innings, allowing six hits, three earned runs and striking out five. Senior Scott Eckard (Lake Mary, Fla./Lake Mary) (0-2) took the loss for Upstate, as he allowed seven hits, three walks and seven runs in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six, running his school career record total to 224 strikeouts.
Upstate will head to Charleston, S.C. for a two-game midweek set with The Citadel beginning on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
