Going Over The Hump
5/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 13, 2009
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate baseball team will travel to Campbell for a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference set to wrap up their 2009 season, with the first game set for Thursday at 4 p.m. before a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday. The Camels have the most potent offense in the A-Sun, hitting a bruising .354 as a team and they also contain the conference's top two hitters, but Upstate's offense has been hot of late as well, hitting .337 as a team in the last eight games and averaging 7.5 runs per game.
The Spartans, who swept the Camels in 2008, will look for a good weekend to build on for the 2010 team, and will also send a pair of pitchers during the mound looking for school records. Senior Dennis McCraney needs one appearance to tie the school career record of 76 and junior Matt Branham will head to the mound needing six strikeouts to pass Michael Stone's single-season record of 80 set in 2000. Branham has fanned 75 batters in as many innings this season.
Quick Hits
•Senior Phillip Morgan is on a Division I-era record 22-game hitting streak. In that time, he is hitting .436 (41-for-94) with nine doubles, three homers, 16 runs and 26 RBI. Morgan's hitting streak is the longest since Chris Nowak hit in 27 straight games in 2002.
• Senior Eric Guillen moved past Jason Westbrook (1993-95, 179) and into 10th place in school history in career hits on Saturday, thanks to a five-hit doubleheader against UNF. He now has 183 career hits.
• In his last 21 games, junior Ryan Wilkins has raised his batting average from .077 to .330 by going 30-for-81 (.370) with 21 runs and 15 RBI. Wilkins is currently tied for fifth in the A-Sun with three triples.
• Sophomore Keith Bisgounis is 9-for-21 (.429) with six runs and two RBI in the last six games.
• Senior Dennis McCraney has appeared in 75 career games on the mound, just one away from the school record of 76 set by Chris Fowler from 1989-92. He is currently tied with Stan Smith (2001-04) for the second-most appearances.
• Junior Jimmy Tanner became the 12th player in school history to reach 175 career hits on Tuesday at South Carolina with his infield hit in the second game of the doubleheader after wrapping three hits in the first game.
• Senior Eric Guillen is hitting .400 (14-for-35) with 11 runs, four doubles, a triple and 12 RBI in the last eight games. The shortstop saw a string of six straight multiple-hit games end Sunday against UNF.
• Senior Phillip Morgan's two homers in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader against UNF was the first time a Spartan had two homers in a game since Eric Davis hit two out against Augusta State on April 23, 2005.
• Senior Phillip Morgan is the only player in Upstate's DI era to hit 10 homers.
• Upstate saw a string of five straight 10-hit games snap on Sunday against UNF. The string included the first 20-hit game in the DI era in the 21-16 loss to the Ospreys on Saturday when Upstate had 22 hits.
Streaking
How impressive is senior Phillip Morgan's current 22-game hitting streak? To start, it is the longest hitting streak for the Spartans since Chris Nowak's 27-game hitting streak in 2002. Morgan is hitting .436 (41-for-94) with nine doubles, three homers, 16 runs and 26 RBI during that time. For the season, he is hitting .325 with a team-high 16 doubles, six homers and 40 RBI.
Even more impressive is that Morgan was headlong in a slump that saw his average dip to .232 before his hitting streak started on April 7 at Wake Forest. Against Florida Gulf Coast, Morgan had six hits in 13 at bats, including a three-hit, two-RBI game on April 25. He was 4-for-4 with two runs and an RBI at Kennesaw State to lead the Spartans to a 7-5 victory on April 12. He was 2-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI in the win over Presbyterian on April 8. In addition, he started the streak by going 4-for-6 with a career-high six RBI at Wake Forest and missed hitting for the cycle by a triple. During a three-game set with ETSU, Morgan blasted seven hits.
Record Punchout Pace
Junior Matt Branham will enter his final start of the year against Campbell needing six strikeouts to break Upstate's single-season record of 80, set by Michael Stone in 2000. Branham, who entered the year with 96 strikeouts in 150 innings, has been dominant at times this year, having racked up 75 Ks in 75 innings.
With his first of five strikeouts against ETSU on April 17, he became the sixth pitcher in school history to reach 150 career strikeouts. He moved into the top five in career punchouts with his next of five strikeouts on the night and he is currently fourth in school history with 171 strikeouts.
Branham has struck out five or more batters in 10 of his 12 starts this year, including a career-high 11 at Jacksonville on March 27.
Hitman
With 75 hits in 51 games, junior Jimmy Tanner needs eight safeties in the last three games to tie the school record of 83 hits set by Brad Wingo in 2006. As it is, Tanner is tied for 10th in school history with Chris Nowak (2003 and 2004) with his 75 hits. Tanner has established career highs this season in nearly every offensive category, including hits (75), batting average (.352), runs (39), RBI (34), doubles (15), walks (27) and slugging percentage (.451).
Tanner became the 12th player in school history to reach 175 career hits on May 12 at South Carolina, as he posted four hits in the doubleheader.
California Dreamin'
Senior Eric Guillen has left his mark on USC Upstate baseball. The Thousand Oaks, Calif., native has started all but one game in the last two years in the middle infield and has silently crept up some of the school's career record lists. He enters the weekend 10th in school history with 186 career hits. His 186 career games are fifth in school history and his 670 at bats are sixth. In the field, his 461 career assists are third.
The 5-10 middle infielder has heated up in the last nine games, hitting .410 (16-for-39) with 11 runs and 12 RBI. He posted six straight two-hit games at one point and against Charleston Southern on May 7, Guillen had two runs, a double, a triple and three RBI. He also had two runs and two RBI against Wofford on May 5 and two RBI and a run at The Citadel on May 6. He stayed hot against North Florida, going 5-for-11 in the May 9 doubleheader, adding three runs and four RBI. He also had an RBI double and scored in a two-hit game against South Carolina on May 12. In the field, Guillen has posted 16 straight flawless games, the longest errorless stretch in his career.
Recapping Campbell 2008
Two walk-off wins highlighted March 17 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 rain-suspended Saturday game, Jimmy Tanner singled in 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, Kyle Bowley barreled home with two outs in the 10th inning to score on a passed ball and lift the Spartans to the sweep.
