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Contact: David Beall, dbeall@uscupstate.edu

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – With its postseason hopes slipping away by the day, the USC Upstate baseball team fell behind early and never recovered Friday evening, falling 6-2 to the University of North Florida in game two of a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference series at Harley Park.

The Spartans (25-28, 8-18 A-Sun) drop their sixth consecutive game and will cap the regular season Saturday afternoon in the series finale against the Ospreys (38-16, 18-8) with a new noon start time in an effort to avoid incoming inclement weather.

Upstate is percentage points behind Jacksonville for the eighth and final spot in the upcoming 2013 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship after the Dolphins were delayed Friday due to rain at ETSU.

The Spartans are in a win or go home scenario Saturday, needing to win and have JU drop the final two games of the series to ETSU to clinch a spot in the A-Sun Championship. A loss tomorrow by Upstate or a win by the Dolphins would officially eliminate the Spartans from contention.

North Florida came racing out of the gates Friday in game two of the series, using a pair of first-inning home runs to plate a trio of runs and give the Ospreys a 3-0 lead.

Both pitchers would settle in from there, tossing zeros on the scoreboard until the fifth inning when the Spartans came alive with four hits, including a two-out two-run single through the left side by Brandon Patterson to cut the Osprey lead to just one at 3-2.

That would be as close as Upstate would come however, as North Florida added a run in the sixth inning and two unearned runs in the eighth to pick up the 6-2 victory and clinch the series win.

David Roseboom (5-4) suffered the loss, allowing four runs on five hits, while Nick Allbritton (5-6) earned the win with 7.2 strong innings of work for UNF.

Upstate outhit the Ospreys 11-8, led by three base knocks from Brody Greer who came to life a day after seeing his 20-game hit streak come to an end. Greer extended his reached base streak to 22 contests with the three-hit effort.

The Spartans honored 10 graduating seniors before the game as the group plays in the final home series of their collegiate careers.

With rain making its way to the area Saturday, the final game of the series and the regular season has been moved to noon at Harley Park.

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