FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – USC Upstate baseball dropped its opening game of the 2021 Ingles Big South Championship Thursday night. The No. 2 seed Spartans fell to the No. 3 seed Runnin' Bulldogs 11-4 to drop to 37-15 on the season and move to the loser's bracket.
Upstate will face top-seeded Campbell Friday morning at 11 a.m. in an elimination game. The winner of that game will go on to face the loser of Presbyterian versus Gardner-Webb tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
"We got beat in every facet tonight. We didn't get a get a good start on the mound, and that's where it starts. We were playing behind the eight ball against a really good arm all night. Mason Miller was really good for them. The tough thing about tournament time is you have to turn right around and play better. We will wash the taste of this game out of our mouths and move on," said head coach Mike McGuire.
Gardner-Webb ace Mason Miller held the Spartans to just two runs and six hits through eight complete innings of work, and Keji Parkhurst batted a triple short of the cycle with three RBI in the game.
All four of Upstate's runs came off home runs as Devin Buckner and Brady Garrison each went yard on the night.
In the top of the first with the bases loaded and one out, Gardner-Webb flied out to Julian Rip in right who then gunned down the runner tagging up at third at heading home. Rip ended his night with two assists from right field.
Freshman Easton Cullison ripped a single up the middle in the bottom of the second and made a diving stop at second base in the top of the third to end a three up, three down inning for the Spartans.
Buckner got the Spartans on the board in the bottom of the third with a two-out, two-run homer, his fourth of the season, to make it a 6-2 game. He added a double off the wall in right center in the sixth.
Garrison added two more runs for Upstate in the bottom of the ninth with his first home run of the year, a two-run shot over the wall in left to cut the deficit to 11-4.
Six different Spartan pitchers saw the mound on the day. Sawyer Worrell worked a 1-2-3 seventh with a strikeout in his lone inning of work, and Kyle Schmitt closed things out with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth.
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