LOUISVILLE, Ky. – USC Upstate baseball launched a pair of home runs Tuesday afternoon at No. 18 Louisville in the eighth and ninth innings, but the rally fell short as the Spartans dropped the midweek contest to the Cardinals 8-6. The Spartans sit at 34-14 overall and 25-12 in league play on the season with the final conference series of the regular season on deck.
"I'm disappointed with the result today, but I really liked how we played. It was good for us to move on from a disappointing weekend and play well. I thought we swung the bat well today and did some good things defensively. Louisville was a really good challenge for us, and you have to respect their speed and control their running game and short game. They put a lot of pressure on us for nine innings, and I thought they were a good test for us heading into our last weekend and then postseason play," said head coach Mike McGuire.
Devin Buckner led the Spartans at the plate on the day with his second four-hit effort of the season, batting 4-for-5 with three RBI including an RBI double and a two-run blast in the top of the ninth for his third home run of the season.
With a pair of walks and singles on the day, Julian Rip extended his on-base streak to 16 games, notching a hit in 14 games during that span. He finished his day at the plate batting 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Jack Gallagher went 2-for-3 at the plate with his fourth homer of the year in the eighth inning.
Nate Payne got off to a strong start on the mound, retiring the Cards in order after a pickoff and a strikeout in the bottom of the first. He went 2.0 innings and picked up the loss for a record of 0-2 on the year. Trey Miller came on in the bottom of the third after Louisville had taken a 4-2 lead with no outs and a runner on second. He struck out two and retired all three batters faced to get the Spartans out of the inning, and went on to sit the Cards down in order in the fifth.
The Spartans threatened early, but stranded four runners in the first two innings and found themselves down 1-0 in the bottom of the second. A leadoff walk for the Cardinals led to an RBI groundout following a ground-rule double off the batter's eye.
Buckner responded in the top of the third with a standup RBI double deep down the left field line, and he made it to third on Noah Rabon's groundout to first. Jeff Taylor then drove in Buckner with a groundout to second for a 2-1 Spartan lead. Louisville, however, quickly retook the lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI double to the gap in right center followed by a two-run homer to center.
Upstate got a run back in the top of the fourth as Gallagher took the fourth straight leadoff walk of the day for the Spartans and made it to third on back-to-back sac bunts. Rip then beat out the throw for a two-out single up the middle to knock in Gallagher and pull the Spartans within one.
The Cards pushed their lead to 5-3 with a pair of doubles in the fourth, and after two scoreless innings, added two more in the seventh. Gallagher's homer came as a solo shot in the top of the eighth to make it a 7-4 ballgame, but Louisville answered that with a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth.
The Spartans attempted to rally in the top of the ninth as Rip led off with a single up the middle before Buckner launched his homer to left to pull Upstate within two runs at 8-6 with no outs, but that is as close as the Spartans would get.
UP Next for the Spartans
The Spartans head back to Asheville at the end of the week to close out the regular season with a three-game series against the Bulldogs. Game one is Thursday, May 20 at 5 p.m. with a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. Upstate is 2-0 against UNC Asheville so far this season with a pair of midweek wins.
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