Back From Exams
5/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 6, 2008
A-Sun.TV | Gametracker
Complete Presbyterian Notes in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Given 10 days off to focus on exams, the USC Upstate baseball team will now get to focus on its last eight games of the year, coming in a rapid-fire nine-day stretch, starting on Wednesday when the Spartans host Presbyterian at 6 p.m. at Harley Park in the last of a four-game series with the Blue Hose.
Upstate leads the season series, 2-1, and has a narrow lead in the all-time series, 12-11. In nine all-time meetings, Upstate head coach Matt Fincher has recorded a 6-3 record. Earlier this year, the Spartans came from behind to beat the Blue Hose, 7-6, at Harley Park on March 26 after falling behind, 4-0, in the first inning. The next day, the Spartans downed PC, 4-1, in Clinton, S.C., but the Blue Hose avenged the loss with a 10-7 win on April 22 at PC.
Quick Hits
• USC Upstate has come-from-behind to win 13 of their 21 games this season, including scoring its first go-ahead runs in the sixth inning or later nine times.
• After starting the year in a 1-for-25 slump, freshman Keith Bisgounis has hit .326 (32-for-98) with 22 runs and 21 RBIs.
• In his last seven outings, junior Phillip Myers has tossed 15.1 innings in six relief appearances and one start, posting a 2.87 ERA and a 1-0 record. He has struck out nine and walked four.
• Junior Eric Guillen is one hit shy of becoming the 25th player in school history to record 50 hits in two seasons in his career.
• Senior Andrew Runion's nine homers this year are the most since Kyle Bowley hit nine as a freshman in 2004. No Spartan has hit 10 homers in a season since Callahan Morden hit 11 in 1999.
• Freshman Blake Green is 26th in the nation and second in the A-Sun in sacrifice bunts, laying down 11 this season.
• Senior Scott Eckard's school-record 13 career complete games are four more than the next closest, as Eric Hunter finished nine starts from 1986-89.
Bowley Added To Clemens Award Watch List
Senior Kyle Bowley has been added to the Roger Clemens Award Watch List, the National Collegiate Writers Baseball Association has announced on the award's Web site. The Clemens Award is given to the top collegiate pitcher in the nation and Bowley is one of five players in the Atlantic Sun Conference on the Watch List. Bowley is one of 114 pitchers on the Watch List and is one of just five from the Atlantic Sun Conference along with FGCU's Richard Bleier, Lipscomb's Brandon McClurg, Belmont's Chris Manning and Stetson's Robbie Elsemiller. Coastal Carolina's Bobby Gagg and Joey Haug and Clemson's D.J. Mitchell and Matt Vaughn are the only other players from South Carolina.
Freshmen On The List
Freshmen Blake Green and Keith Bisgounis have each made a significant impact on the Spartan outfield this season, securing starting slots in the lineup for a majority of the season. Now, they are beginning to leave their mark on the Spartans' rookie record book. Green is one of just 11 freshmen in school history to post 40 hits in a season and he is just three safeties away from eighth place in the record book. Bisgounis has left his mark by driving in runners, as he is currently tied for eighth among Upstate freshmen with 21 RBIs.
Tanning The Rawhide
Sophomore Jimmy Tanner has become one of Upstate's most reliable offensive producers this season, after struggling out of the gate. After going 9-for-42 in his first 11 games, the Spartan catcher has hit .364 (48-for-132) with 23 runs in 21 RBIs in the last 34 games. In the process, he has moved to the top of the lineup and has risen to second on the Spartans with a .328 average.
Home Run Runion
Senior Andrew Runion hit his ninth homer of the season in the ninth inning of the Spartans' 10-7 loss to Presbyterian on May 7. The Mauldin High product has hit as many homers this season (9) as he had in his first three years in an Upstate uniform. Making his power numbers even more impressive, Runion is just one homer shy of becoming the first Spartan to hit 10 homers in a season since Callhan Morden hit 11 in 1999.
Cool Colecchi
In one of the strangest games of the season, it was an unlikely hero that came through for the Spartans. Senior Mike Colecchi, hitting ..208 entering the game, hit a ball through the right side under a diving first baseman's glove in the top of the 11th inning to help the USC Upstate baseball team win the getaway game, 6-4, on April 26 at Belmont. After each team scored twice in the 10th inning to keep the game tied at four, the Spartans kept their offensive momentum going in what started as a pitchers' duel. In the 11th, senior Casey Rivers led off by getting hit by an 0-1 pitch. After a sac bunt moved him to second, freshman Keith Bisgounis lifted a ball to right field that plopped feet in front of the right fielder, advancing Rivers to third. Colecchi followed with a bouncer that slipped under the first baseman's glove. After a walk, a sac fly scored Bisgounis.
