Upstate Baseball Will Hold Alumni Game On Oct. 24
9/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Sept. 28, 2009
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Once again, the USC Upstate baseball team will take an afternoon to look back, as the 2010 team will face off against Spartan alumni in the annual Alumni Game on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. at Harley Park.
The Alumni Game will serve as a kick-off to a year-long 25th-season celebration for the USC Upstate baseball program. Fans, alumni and supporters can still vote for the Top 25 Moments in Upstate baseball history online until Friday, Oct. 16. The results of the fan-based poll will be announced to the public on UpstateSpartans.com from Monday, Feb. 15 to Friday, Feb. 19 in a weeklong celebration before the Spartans open their Silver Season on Saturday, Feb. 20 against Appalachian State.
"The alumni game is the only opportunity the current team has in the fall to play what could be considered outside competition," 13th-year head coach Matt Fincher, the program's all-time leader in wins, said, "so it breaks the monotony of intersquad games. More importantly, it does give us an opportunity to stay connected to our alumni. It gives the players that are in the program now an opportunity to meet and speak to players that have been here previously.
"It's a primary way that we try to grow the program because we want people who've been here previously to stay connected. The alumni enjoy coming out once a year and playing and I think they like getting a sneak preview of what we might be like in the spring. Basically, we just get to be out playing baseball and have a very enjoyable day."
Alumni batting practice will begin at 11:15 a.m. with the game scheduled to start at 1 p.m. For more information on the game, please contact Coach Fincher at 864-503-5135.
The Alumni will face a stiff challenge in the current Spartans, which returns four starters and six pitchers from a squad that went 17-37 overall in 2009. The Spartans will be led by senior catcher Jimmy Tanner (Fayetteville, Ga./Starr's Mill), who was an All-Star this summer in the Northwoods League, and senior Matt Branham (Columbia, S.C./Spring Valley), who went struck out a school-record 82 batters in 82 innings before being drafted in the 47th round of the MLB draft by the Houston Astros in June.
Stay tuned to UpstateSpartans.com for more updates about the Silver Season celebration.
