SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Adding another tally to the win column and drawing the team's record to .500 on the season, USC Upstate baseball secured a winning record in the OneSpartanburg, Inc. Baseball Classic for the second time in three seasons following a 10-1 defeat of Canisius Saturday afternoon at Cleveland S. Harley Park.
Following the blueprint from Friday's win, Upstate saw another stellar effort from its starting pitcher to spur the victory as sophomore right-hander
Mathieu Curtis turned in a career-best start to earn his first win of the season. He finished the afternoon with a career-high seven strikeouts—to no walks—as he scattered just three hits and four baserunners while permitting just one run over a career-long 7.0-inning outing.
Backing Curtis out of the bullpen, redshirt junior right-hander
Jake Cubbler and senior right-hander
Tommy Henninger each produced a scoreless frame, combining to allow just one baserunner while striking out three hitters.
Offensively, the Spartans hung 10 or more runs on the scoreboard for the third straight contest, the team's longest streak with double-digit runs since doing so in three straight games in late April 2022. Senior centerfielder
Daniel Gernon tied a career-high with four RBI as he finished the day 2-for-4 with a double and triple on his ledger. Upstate also cranked a pair of solo shots in the seventh—the team's fourth multi-homer effort of the season—as redshirt senior first baseman
Grant Sherrod (second) and junior leftfielder
Jace Rinehart (third) went back-to-back.
Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 10; Canisius 1
Records: USC Upstate (3-3; 0-0 Big South); Canisius (1-2; 0-0 MAAC)
Location: Cleveland S. Harley Park | Spartanburg, S.C.
How It Happened
- B2: Earning the bases loaded behind three consecutive free bases (an HBP and two walks) to open the frame, Upstate began the day's scoring as David Pereira singled back through the box to plate two. With the bases loaded again by a third walk, Daniel Gernon produced the inning's biggest hit, a base-clearing triple, to grow the lead to five before scoring on a wild pitch for the sixth run of the frame.
- T4: Getting a run back, Canisius offered its only tally on a home run to right from Carlin Dick.
- B7: Tacking on to the lead and getting back the run surrendered earlier in the afternoon, Grant Sherrod and Jace Rinehart clubbed back-to-back homers to open the eighth, both hitting their long balls on the first pitch of their at-bats.
- B8: Following a leadoff walk, Gernon tallied his fourth RBI of the day, driving home Armsey with a double off the wall in left-center. He'd later come in to score on an RBI groundout by Sherrod, concluding the day's scoring.
Notable
- Putting up another 10 runs Saturday, Upstate has scored double-digit runs in three straight games for the first time since April 20 and April 22-23, 2022, when the Spartans hung 10-plus runs on Gardner-Webb and North Carolina A&T.
- Collecting another 10 strikeouts in Saturday's game versus Canisius, the Spartans have struck out double-digit batters in three straight games for the first time since doing so against The Citadel (March 14, 2023), Cincinnati (March 16, 2023), and Princeton (March 18, 2023) last season.
- Securing a hit against Canisius, Vance Sheahan pushed his hitting streak to six games to begin his collegiate career. His six-game hitting streak to begin his career is the longest by a Spartan since Drake Harris fashioned a six-game hitting streak to begin his freshman season in 2017.
- Troy Hamilton and Jace Rinehart upped their reached base streaks to 13 games each versus the Golden Griffins, the longest active streaks by a Spartan, while Grant Sherrod pushed his to 11 games for the third active reached base streak greater than 10 games. Rinehart pushed his hitting streak to 11 games, also the longest active streak by a Spartan.
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