USC Upstate baseball ended a nine-game losing streak Friday evening with a commanding 16-8 victory over Gardner-Webb in the series opener at Cleveland S. Harley Park in Spartanburg, extending the Spartans’ remarkable 12-game winning streak in the teams’ head-to-head series.
The win pushed USC Upstate to 20-26 overall and 9-10 in Big South Conference play, while Gardner-Webb fell to 21-25 and 8-11 in conference. The Spartans pounded out 16 hits on the night, reaching double-digit hits for the first time in 10 games.
Senior first baseman Wylie Waters was the offensive catalyst, going 4-for-4 with four RBI and his team-leading ninth home run of the season, one shy of a double-digit home run campaign. Senior leftfielder Preston Lucas matched him with three hits and a solo home run, while fifth-year senior designated hitter Johnny Sweeney drove home four runs on a three-run blast in the fourth inning — the 30th home run of his career at Upstate, tying former teammate Grant Sherrod for the program’s Division I era record dating to 2007.
The offensive floodgates opened in the second inning. Responding to a 2-0 Gardner-Webb lead, Waters’ two-run shot to center sparked a five-run frame that gave Upstate a lead it would not relinquish. Lucas added a solo shot in the third, and Sweeney crushed a three-run blast in the fourth after the Runnin’ Bulldogs briefly trimmed the deficit. The decisive blow came in the sixth inning when the Spartans erupted for seven runs, the club’s highest-scoring inning since a February contest against NJIT.
Gardner-Webb provided some fireworks of its own — Kelvin Agosto went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a homer, and Zack Thompson and Alejandro Sanchez each added two-run shots — but the Spartans’ bullpen held firm down the stretch.
On the mound, junior left-hander Chris Torres picked up his fifth win of the year, working five innings and striking out two. Out of the bullpen, redshirt junior right-hander Max Eichenberger delivered his third consecutive scoreless appearance, allowing no runs or hits over two innings of work.
The teams are set to continue the series Saturday at Harley Park in Spartanburg, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday’s outcome carries significant weight for both clubs as each seeks to improve their Big South standing heading into the final weeks of the regular season.
