Spartans to Close Out 2012 Home Slate this Weekend
5/10/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The USC Upstate baseball team, after having both midweek contests rained out, will play its final three home games of the 2012 season when it welcomes Kennesaw State to Harley Park for a three-game series beginning Friday night at 6 p.m.
Game two of the series will take place Saturday night at 6 p.m. and prior to the game, the program will honor its seniors. The third and final game is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch Sunday.
Live stats will be available for all three contests and fans can also join the conversation on twitter: @UpstateSpartans / #UpstateBSB.
First Pitch…
• The 2012 season marks the first season of full NCAA Division I eligibility for the Spartans... After a five-year transitional phase from D-II to D-I, Upstate is eligible for postseason play.
• Head Coach Matt Fincher is in his 15th season at the helm of the Spartan baseball program.
• The Spartans lost a pair of midweek games to mother nature (The Citadel, at Davidson).
• Since dropping all three contests at Belmont (Apr. 6-7), the Spartans have won 12 of their last 15 contests and have won three-straight A-Sun series... At 32-14 Upstate is just four wins shy of tying the school-record for wins (36, 1987).
• Gaither Bumgardner's run of 15 consecutive trips on base and 11 straight hits came to a close Friday with a first-inning ground out... In each category, he fell just three shy of the NCAA record... For the week (May 1-6), Bumgardner batted .667 (16-24, 3 Doubles) with nine runs and eight RBI.
• David Roseboom (May 4) and Brandon Lee (May 6) each picked up their seventh win of the season as the Spartans picked up the 2-1 series win over Stetson.
• Upstate overcame a season-high five errors to pick up its 30th win of the season with a 15-3 victory at Georgia State (May 2)... Gaither Bumgardner highlighted the Spartan offense with a 5-for-5 effort to go along with six RBI and two runs... Ben Augenstein earned the win after scattering six hits and three unearned runs in 6.2 innings of work (career-high five strikeouts)... Chris Knauff closed the door on the Panthers, allowing one hit while striking out one... The Spartans also drew a season-best 13 walks in the contest.
• Against Wofford (May 1), the Spartans rallied to tie the contest at six with a three-run ninth, but Wofford responded with the game-winning run in the bottom of the frame... Gaither Bumgardner led the way with five hits (five ABs), three runs and one RBI... Jordan Stampler added three hits and two runs while Austin Liput posted three hits and three RBI against the Terriers.
• The Spartans picked up their third conference series sweep of the season as the club claimed all three victories over Jacksonville (Apr. 20-22).
• Brody Greer finished a triple shy of the cycle (including his first career HR) and scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth as the Spartans downed the Dolphins, 3-2 (Apr. 20)... Ben Augenstein earned the win in relief and improved to 2-1 after tossing 1.2 innings of scoreless baseball (0 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts).
• The Spartans scored four unearned runs in the 3rd and registered its lone hit of the game in the 5th en route to a 4-2 win in the middle game of the Jacksonville series.
Kennesaw State Probables:
The Owls, who have not played since being swept at Florida Gulf Coast (Apr. 27-29), will use some form of the following four pitchers to formulate their starting weekend rotation:
• Josh Carr (Sr., RH, 8-2, 3.87)
• Travis Dean (So., RH, 3-0, 2.38)
• Kevin Kyle (Jr., LH, 0-4, 3.71)
• Kevin McCoy (So., LH, 1-4, 2.84)
