SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Scoring 29 runs through two games in its latest Big South Conference series, USC Upstate baseball earned the club's first run-rule victory in league play since March 2024, completing its sweep of Winthrop with a 17-1 win in seven innings Sunday afternoon at Cleveland S. Harley Park. As has become a trend in the series, the Spartans scored 17 unanswered runs in the series finale.
 
All nine Upstate starters reached base at least once Sunday afternoon as Upstate pounded out 14 hits and drew eight free bases (four walks and four HBP) en route to its 17 runs. Junior second baseman Gage Griggs and redshirt freshman leftfielder Henry Zenor led the Spartans with three hits apiece with Griggs tallying three doubles, tying the program's Division I era (2007-pres.) record for single-game doubles, last accomplished by Zenor in the team's last run-rule victory of the 2025 season at NC State on March 25.
 
Becoming the third different Spartan to record a multi-homer game this season, junior first baseman Wylie Waters drove home the first four Upstate runs with a solo homer in the second inning and a three-run shot in the fourth. He finished the afternoon 2-for-3 at the dish, collecting five RBI on the day, running his total to 13 runs batted in on the weekend.
 
Not to be lost in the team's 17-run outburst, Upstate's pitching held Winthrop to one run and seven hits Sunday with sophomore left-handed pitcher Chris Torres and sophomore right-hander Cooper Ellingworth combining to limit the Eagles. Torres notched his team-leading fifth quality start of the year, tossing 6.0 innings of one-run baseball while striking out three. Ellingworth closed the game with a pair of punchouts in a single inning of work.
 
Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 17; Winthrop 1 [7 inn.]
Records: USC Upstate (19-17; 8-4 Big South); Winthrop (18-20; 5-7 Big South)
Location: Cleveland S. Harley Park | Spartanburg, S.C.
 
How It Happened

• T2: Taking advantage of a pair of Spartan errors in the inning, Winthrop scraped its lone run on a groundout from Liam McCallum.
• B2: Answering the Eagles' run from the prior half-inning, Wylie Waters knotted the game as he blasted a solo shot to leftfield.
• B4: Adding insurance, Waters launched his second long ball of the day, a three-run blast to left-center.
• B5: Growing their lead, the Spartans tacked on four additional tallies in the fifth. Vance Sheahan knocked in the first with a bunt single, the first of two small-ball runs for Upstate in the frame. A gap-splitting double from Johnny Sweeney drove home a pair before a safety squeeze from Preston Lucas pushed across the final run in the stanza.
• B6: Sending 14 men to the plate in the sixth, Upstate blew the game open with nine runs in the inning. Three Spartan runs came across behind free bases while Henry Zenor, Owen Ross, and Gage Griggs all drove home two in the frame.

 
Notable

• Upstate's run-rule victory Sunday afternoon marked the team's first run-rule win in Big South Conference play since defeating Gardner-Webb 20-2 in seven innings on March 17, 2024. The win is the team's second-ever run-rule victory in Big South play since the league policy for get-away-day was adopted ahead of the 2024 season.
• Tacking on five RBI to his weekend total Sunday, Wylie Waters became the second Spartan this season to record four or more RBI in three consecutive games. He joins Johnny Sweeney in accomplishing the feat with Sweeney doing so against Charleston Southern (five), NC State (seven), and ETSU (four) from March 23-28.
• Slugging a pair of home runs Sunday, Waters became the 13^th Spartan in the Division I era (2007-pres.) to register a multi-homer game. He joins Sweeney and Scott Newman (twice) in recording such a game in 2025.
• With three doubles against the Eagles, Gage Griggs tied the program's single-game record for doubles, securing the sixth instance of the mark. He's the first to accomplish the feat since teammate Henry Zenor did so on March 25 at NC State, coincidentally the Spartans' last run-rule victory.

 
Up Next for the Spartans
Closing out its three-game midweek series against its crosstown rival, USC Upstate heads to Wofford Tuesday evening. The rubber match between the Spartans and Terriers sees first pitch at 5:30 p.m. ET.
 
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