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Spartanburg, S.C. – USC Upstate belted two home runs, the first a solo shot by Shellie Robinson that broke the A-Sun record for homers in a season, and hammered out 10 runs on 13 hits to claim a 10-2 victory over Charlotte in non-conference softball action Wednesday night at Cyrill Stadium.
Robinson continued to add to her already impressive resume by tying the Upstate single-season program record for home runs, belting her 20th of the season. She tied Stacey Berrong, who hit 20 in 1996, a record that has stood for 19 years. Her solo homer in the fourth pushed the Spartans to 82 homers for the season, breaking the A-Sun's single-season record of 81 set by Campbell in 2009. Karla Beasley added a two-run home run in fourth and Upstate will enter the final weekend of the regular season with 83 dingers on the year.
Upstate improved to 37-8 on the year and will return to action when it plays host to Northern Kentucky for a three-game A-Sun series Saturday and Sunday at Cyrill Stadium. The series will close out the regular season. The Spartans, having already clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming A-Sun Tournament and at least a share of the A-Sun regular season championship, needs one win over Northern Kentucky or a loss by Kennesaw State to win the regular season championship outright for the second consecutive season. The Spartans own a 15-2 record in the A-Sun.
Charlotte used the wind and some solid hitting to jump out to the early lead. After Jessica Plemmons hit a double to left center, Jackie Kleinsmith lifted a towering fly ball to left that carried over the wall aided by a stiff wind to give the 49ers a 2-0 lead in the first.
Upstate got a run back in the bottom of the first when Beasley slapped a single into right center to score Robinson from third and cut the Charlotte lead to 2-1. The Spartans tied the game on Aly Schneider's RBI single to left in the second.
Upstate grabbed the lead with four unearned runs in the third inning to take a 6-2 lead. With runners on first and third and two outs, Kaitlyn Jaeger reached on an error by the 49er second baseman. Paris Prusak followed with a two-run double to left and scored on another error by the second baseman on a grounder.
Upstate put the game away with four runs in the fourth, and did so using the long ball. Robinson started things off with a one-out solo home run to left that broke the A-Sun season record. Beasley followed with a two-run homer to give the Spartans a 9-2 lead. The Spartans made it a 10-2 lead on Prusak's RBI single.
After allowing two runs on the home run in the first inning, Upstate starter Lexi Shubert settled down and held Charlotte to one hit the remaining four innings. She struck out four and allowed three hits in the game to improve to 27-5 on the year. Charlotte starter Lexi Betancourt allowed six runs on eight hits to take the loss and fall to 16-15. Only two of the runs scored against her were earned.
Robinson, Kendall Settlemyre, Beasley and Prusak each finished with two hits in the game. Beasley and Prusak each drove in three runs, while Robinsona dn Settlemyre scored twice.
