Spartans Host Lipscomb in Critical Conference Series
4/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate baseball team looks for its second straight Atlantic Sun Conference series win when the Spartans welcome Lipscomb to Harley Park Friday at 6 p.m. to being a three-game series.
Spartan sophomore right-hander Jordan Miller (1-0, 2.55) will make his first career start Friday in game one and go up against right-hander Ian Martinez McGraw (4-2, 2.33). Blake Whitney (3-1, 4.40) will oppose Jeffrey Passantino (0-0, 4.38) Saturday at 2 p.m. in game two, and sophomore Zac Manuppelli (1-2. 5.79) takes the ball Sunday at 1 p.m. in game three and matches up against Brady Puckett (2-1, 6.00).
Upstate used strong pitching and timely hitting to win games two and three against Stetson to catapult itself into sixth place in the conference standings. The Spartans held the Hatters to just one run in each of the final two games of the series, and Charlie Carpenter delivered the game-winning RBI double in the eighth inning of game three to break a 1-1 tie.
Carpenter added three more RBIs Tuesday at Furman and enters the weekend tied for seventh in the A-Sun with 33. The Winter Springs, Fla., native registered his team-leading fifth three-RBI game of the season against the Paladins and has the most such games since Austin Liput had seven in 2012.
Shortstop Daniel Fickas had two hits against Furman and has tallied at least two hits in six of his last seven games. Fickas leads the team and a .340 batting average and is tied for third in the A-Sun with 53 hits. Fellow infielder Erik Samples is second on the team with a .315 batting average and is tied for third in the league with 13 doubles.
Samples and outfielder Cody Brittain are tied for the team lead with three home runs apiece.
Lipscomb lost its second consecutive A-Sun series last weekend when the Bisons dropped two of three at home to North Florida to fall to 2-4 in the league. The Bisons picked up a 6-3 win Tuesday over Murray State and arrive in Spartanburg with a 21-13 overall record.
Senior outfielder Jonathan Allison leads Lipscomb with a .368 batting average, 33 RBIs and four home runs, while infielder Grant Massey stands second on the club with a .365 batting average and 25 runs driven in.
USC Upstate is 6-3 all-time at Harley Park against Lipscomb, and the all-time series between the two schools is tied at nine games apiece.
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