No. 10 Pacers Clip Hawks’ Wings in Shutout Victory
AIKEN, S.C. – The
10th-ranked USC Aiken baseball team earned the sweep over Chowan
Thursday afternoon at Roberto Hernandez Stadium with a 7-0 shutout
victory over the Hawks.
The Pacers out-hit the
Hawks 9-4 to earn their season-best eighth straight win.
USC Aiken improves to
18-7 for the 2010 campaign while Chowan falls to 7-13-1.
Bill Rice (Sewell,
N.J./Gloucester County) was able to put the Pacers up on the board
first in the bottom of the second inning when he sent a sacrifice
fly to left field to score Matt Key (New Ellenton, S.C./Silver
Bluff) from third who started things off with a triple to right
center.
In the bottom of the
third inning, designated hitter Travis Howard (Bonneau, S.C./USC
Salkehatchie) batted in David Vitko (Columbiana, Ohio/Youngstown
State) to put the Pacers up 2-0.
The Pacers grounded any
hopes the Hawks had of mounting a comeback when Nick Aranas
(Lexington, S.C./Lexington) and Gary Asbill (Batesburg,
S.C./Batesburg-Leesville) began a furious charge in the bottom of
the eighth inning that saw five Pacers cross the dish off four hits
and one error by Chowan. Asbill laced a ball up the middle to get
on base moving Aranas from first into scoring position on third for
Key.
After Josh Attaway
(Lexington, S.C./Lexington) came into the game to pinch run for
Asbill, the left fielder Key was able to push Aranas across the
plate and move Attaway to second with an impressively placed
sacrifice bunt to the second base area to get on base and put the
Pacers up 3-0.
Kyle Rice (Augusta,
Ga./Cross Creek) laid down a sacrifice bunt of his own a few
moments later to move Key to second and Attaway to third.
Sophomore outfielder
Jowan Gray (Aiken, S.C./South Aiken) then sent a shot to deep
left-center field that was mishandled by the centerfielder to allow
Attaway and Key to score putting the Pacers up 5-0.
Stephen Carmon (Camden,
S.C./Camden) was able to continue the scoring drive for the Pacers
when he jacked his fourth home run of the season well over the
right field wall to score Gray and himself and put USC Aiken up for
good at 7-0.
Key and Bill Rice led USC
Aiken at the plate. Key went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI while
Rice was 3-for-4.
Chowan cycled through
much of their pitching staff with five different pitchers seeing
action on the mound. Lee Dickens suffered the loss for Chowan and
falls to 1-1 on the season.
Jason Cochcroft (Gilbert,
S.C./Gilbert) earned the win on the mound for the Pacers having
fanned six batters in seven full innings of work to improve to 2-0
on the 2010 campaign. Christian Stutts (Aiken, S.C./South Aiken)
earned his first save of the season pitching two full innings.
USC Aiken will remain
within the friendly confines of Roberto Hernandez Stadium for a
weekend Peach Belt Conference series against UNC Pembroke featuring
a doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 20 and a single game on Sunday
Mar. 21. Action at the ‘Bert is schedule to get under way at
1 p.m. both days.
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