Hilltoppers' Comeback Attempt Falls Short Against USC Upstate

Friday, February 28

Spartanburg, SC

3:00 PM CT

Western Kentucky University

6-3

USC Upstate

8-1

Western Kentucky

USC Upstate

Hilltoppers' Comeback Attempt Falls Short Against USC Upstate

2/28/2020 8:53:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score Season Stats

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – WKU Baseball dropped its series opener to USC Upstate, 12-7, Friday night at Harley Park.

The loss moves the Hilltoppers to 6-3 on the season while the win improves the Spartans to 8-1 on the year.

Down 11-2 in the top of the eighth, WKU put together a five-run frame to make it 11-7 and give the team life, but the squad was ultimately unable to complete the comeback.

"That's baseball," said head coach John Pawlowski. "Give them credit, they played well. They did a really good job of taking advantage of the opportunities we gave them. For us to do what we aspire to do, we've got to clean up some areas and that's one of the things – just too many free bases. You do that against any team on the schedule and it's going to be tough. The other part of it is we want to cut down on the strikeouts. When you strike out 17 times in a game it's far too many.

"I know that we'll go to work tomorrow and come back with a mindset that we want to even up the series on the road. It'll be a good test for us again tomorrow. We'll see how the boys handle day two of some adversity on the road."

The Hilltoppers deployed five pitchers on the mound, with the group combining to allow 12 runs and 11 hits.

Offensively, WKU collected 10 hits in the contest, with nine different players recording at least one hit on the day.

Matt Phipps produced the lone multi-hit performance in the game, going 2-for-3 with a double and RBI. Junior Coleman, in just his second at-bat of the season, recorded a three-RBI triple in the contest, while Sam McElreath hit his first home run of the year with a two-run shot over the right field wall.

SCORING SUMMARY
The Hilltoppers opened the scoring, with an RBI-double by Phipps scoring Jackson Swiney in the top of the second.

WKU extended its lead in the top of the third, with a sac fly by Ray Zuberer III scoring Jack Wilson to make it 2-0.

The Spartans evened the score in the bottom of the third, with a two-RBI single putting it at 2-2.

USC Upstate took its first lead of the game in the fourth frame, using an RBI-single to right field to make it 3-2.

The Spartans would go on to add four runs apiece in both the fifth and sixth inning, jumping out to an 11-2 run.

WKU tried to fight back into the game in the top of the eighth, with a three-RBI triple by Coleman and two-run long ball by McElreath cutting the Spartans' lead to just four.

USC Upstate would answer back with a run of its own in the bottom of the eighth, leading to the eventual 12-7 win.

UP NEXT
The Hilltoppers will play game two of their series against the Spartans at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday, Feb. 29 at Harley Park.