SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Returning home for the first time in six games, USC Upstate baseball looked right at home inside the friendly confines of Cleveland S. Harley Park as it plated 14 unanswered runs Friday night, leading to a 14-3 series-opening win over Winthrop. The Spartan offense backed a strong pitching performance that saw Upstate limit the Eagles to three hits on the night.
 
For the fourth straight start in Big South Conference play since joining the weekend rotation, sophomore right-handed pitcher Darin Kuskie turned in a career-long 5.0 innings of work, permitting two hits while striking out six. Despite allowing three runs to Winthrop in the fourth inning, Kuskie didn't panic, working out of the inning and setting up the Spartans' offense in the home half of the frame.
 
Leading off the bottom of the fourth, redshirt freshman leftfielder Henry Zenor put the Spartans on the board with his second homer of the year. Later in the inning, tying the game, redshirt sophomore centerfielder Scott Newman launched his 12^th long ball of the season, a two-run blast to left. Junior first baseman Wylie Waters delivered the Spartans the lead later in the stanza, ripping a single through the left side.
 
Waters ended the evening with a team-high four RBI, pacing a quintet of Spartans notching a multi-RBI effort. Leading Upstate, Zenor finished with a career-high-tying three hits, reaching four times on the night.
 
Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 14; Winthrop 3
Records: USC Upstate (17-17; 6-4 Big South); Winthrop (18-18; 5-5 Big South)
Location: Cleveland S. Harley Park | Spartanburg, S.C.
 
How It Happened

• T4: Opening the night's scoring, Winthrop's Dusty Vela hit a three-run home run to right.
• B4: Answering the Eagles' homer, Upstate launched a pair of its own in the second, the first a solo shot from Henry Zenor to lead off the inning. The second came from Scott Newman, following a walk issue to Vance Sheahan, tying the game with a two-run blast to left. Providing the Spartans the lead for the first and final time, Wylie Waters ripped a single through the left side, chasing home Scott Campbell.
• B7: Sending 11 men to the plate in the frame, Upstate blew open the game, hanging eight tallies on the scoreboard. The Spartans loaded the bases as the first three batters to the plate reached with Johnny Sweeney driving in the inning's first tally with a sac fly to right. Campbell followed the sac fly with an RBI single, one of two straight bunt singles for Upstate. Another crossed the plate as Waters drew a bases-loaded walk before Owen Ross punched a two-run single through the right side and Zenor doubled into the left-center gap.
• B8: Using the second of consecutive doubles, Waters drove in a final pair as he split the gap in left-center, sending Campbell and Preston Lucas racing home.

 
Notable

• Hitting his 12^th home run of the season, Scott Newman tied Johnny Sweeney for the team and Big South lead in the category. The 12 long balls tie for the seventh-most homers in a single season by a Spartan in the Division I era (2007-pres.).

 
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