Baseball Advances in Big South Baseball Championship with Tournament's First-Ever Run-Rule Victory, Dispatching Winthrop 18-6 Thursday

Thursday, May 21

Asheville, N.C.

6:30 p.m.

University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics

30-27

Winthrop

33-22

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
USC Upstate	2	1	2	5	6	2	0	18	18	2
Winthrop	0	2	0	3	0	1	0	6	9	1

Reece Hemmerling 4th Inn. vs. Winthrop BSC - JA

Photo by: Jason Aigner, Big South Conference

5/22/2026 12:24:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – As Mother Nature continues to throw a wrench into the 2026 Big South Baseball Championship, USC Upstate baseball did not allow the added adversity to distract it from its goal of repeating as Big South Tournament Champions. The Spartans took care of business, advancing into the winner's bracket with the tournament's first-ever run-rule victory, 18-6 in seven innings, Thursday against No. 2 seed Winthrop.

Playing with a little extra juice, Upstate set the tone from the first pitch, scoring early and often en route to the run-rule bashing. Redshirt sophomore rightfielder Henry Zenor, for the second straight game in the Big South Baseball Championship, led off the Spartans' half with a solo homer, launching the program's first leadoff home run since 2022.

Scoring two in the first, one in the second, and two in the third, Upstate erupted in the fourth and fifth frames, posting a five-spot and six-spot in the successive innings. The catalyst for both stanzas, combining for five RBI in the two frames, redshirt senior Jake Armsey laced a pair of run-scoring doubles. The biggest hit of the night came off the bat of senior first baseman Wylie Waters, who greeted a new Winthrop arm with a grand slam crushed off the top of the video board in left-center.

Eight of the Spartans' nine starters recorded a hit for the second straight contest, headlined by a career-high-tying four hits from Zenor, including a program-record-tying three doubles. Upstate pounded out 10 doubles Thursday, a program Division I era (2007-pres.) record, one shy of the program's single-game record for team doubles.

While the offense provided the fireworks, senior right-handed pitcher Reece Hemmerling proved masterful on the mound, quieting the Eagle bats as Upstate stacked its runs. Entering the game in the third as Upstate starter, sophomore left-handed pitcher Max Kaplan, exited the contest, Hemmerling immediately went to work, striking out both batters he faced to strand two inherited runners.

Hemmerling tossed the final 4.2 innings of Thursday's contest, earning the victory. In his longest career relief outing, he struck out a career-high six.

Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 18; Winthrop 6 (7 inn.)
Records: USC Upstate (31-27; 13-11 Big South); Winthrop (33-23; 15-9 Big South)
Location: HomeTrust Park | Asheville, N.C.

How It Happened

T1: For the second straight game, Henry Zenor provided the opening jolt for the Spartans, clearing the 36-foot-tall wall in rightfield for the second time during tournament play with a leadoff homer for Upstate. The Spartans tacked on another run as Maloy Heaghney raced home to score on an errant throw from the Winthrop outfield.
T2: Driving home his second run in as many innings, Zenor chased home Preston Lucas with a double tucked down the rightfield line.
B2: Trimming the deficit to a run, Winthrop scored twice in the inning, the first off an RBI double from Ethan Wilson and the second off a sac fly from Colin Crowley.
T3: Immediately responding to the runs it gave up in the prior half inning, Upstate hung two more on the board in the third as Johnny Sweeney vaporized a baseball to straight-away center.
T4: Sending 11 batters to the plate, the Spartans capitalized with five runs in the frame. Upstate notched the first two tallies with an RBI double from Heaghney and an RBI single from Tyler Lang. Jake Armsey delivered the biggest knock of the inning, driving a bases-clearing double off the top of the wall in right, plating the final three.
B4: Getting some of its surrendered runs back, the Eagles scored thrice, each run coming on a bases-clearing double by Gabe Natividad.
T5: Doing its fourth inning one better, Upstate struck for six runs in the fifth. Armsey completed his five-RBI day with a two-run double off the wall in right for the first Spartan tallies. Wylie Waters capped the inning, greeting a new Winthrop arm with a first-pitch grand slam off the top of the video board in left-center.
T6: Collecting its final two runs of the night, Upstate scored via a fielder's choice and balk in the stanza.
B6: The Eagles claimed the night's final run on a solo shot to right from Crowley.

Notable

Homering in the first inning for the second straight game, Henry Zenor extended Upstate's streak of consecutive games with a home run at the Big South Baseball Championship to five. The long ball marked Upstate's first true leadoff home run since Devin Buckner led off the Spartans' contest at Gardner-Webb with a jack on April 20, 2022.
En route to last season's Big South Tournament Title, the Spartans homered nine times across three games. Through two games in 2026, Upstate has slugged five home runs.
Doubling off the wall in center during the fifth inning, Henry Zenor tied the program's single-game record for doubles with three—the 11^th three-double game in program history. He's the first Spartan to reach the mark since Gage Griggs on April 13, 2025, versus Winthrop.
In the D1 era (2007-pres.), Zenor shares the mark with three other Spartans (JJ Shimko [March 4, 2017, vs. Pitt]; Robby McGaha [2/15/19, vs. Kansas]; & Griggs), becoming the first in the era to accomplish the feat twice, last doing so against NC State on March 25, 2025.
As a team, Upstate collected 10 doubles, setting the D1 era standard for single-game doubles as a team. The total ranks second in program history for single-game doubles, trailing just the Spartans' 11 doubles against Bloomfield on Feb. 5, 2005.
Running its winning streak to eight games, the Spartans' current winning streak marks the longest under head coach Kane Sweeney. The streak is Upstate's longest since an eight-game winning streak from March 8-March 17, 2024.

Up Next For the Spartans
With the schedule shuffled at the 2026 Big South Baseball Championship due to unexpected weather delays and postponements Wednesday and Thursday, Upstate returns to action at the event Saturday at 9 a.m. ET. The Spartans play the winner of No. 1 seed High Point and No. 4 seed Charleston Southern.

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