AIKEN, S.C. – Top-seeded and fifth-ranked USC Aiken
rebounded from a first game loss to defeat fifth-seeded and
30th-ranked Tusculum, 9-2, on Friday afternoon at Roberto Hernandez
Stadium.
The game was the fourth of the 2009 NCAA Division II Southeast
Regional. The Pacers will next play at approximately 3 p.m. on
Saturday, May 16. The Pacers opponent is not yet known as it
depends on the outcome of the No. 3-No. 6 Belmont Abbey contest. If
the Bobcats bow out of the tournament then the bracket will stay
the same, but if Belmont Abbey drops the contest then the bracket
scenario will change with five teams still in the event.
The Pacers with the victory over the Pioneers on Friday afternoon
are now 40-18 on the 2009 season. The 40 wins captured by USC Aiken
in 2009 give Coach Thomas’ Pacers five straight 40-win
seasons.
Tusculum with the loss becomes the first team to depart from the
2009 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional. The Pioneers end their
year at 36-18.
The visiting team in the game, USC Aiken started off the game
strongly with 2009 Daktronics Southeast Region Player of the Year
Travis Howard bringing in his first two runs of the NCAA Division
II Southeast Regional in the top of the first inning to give the
Pacers an early 2-0 advantage. Howard slapped a line drive single
that found room just inside the right field line to bring in the
two Pacers.
The two RBIs garnered Howard his 101st and 102nd RBIs of the 2009
season.
Just one inning later, Alex Franklin acquired two more runs for
the Pacers on a two-run blast to left center field. The fourth
tater of the year for Franklin earned the Pacers a 4-0 lead through
two innings.
The four runs picked up the Pacers in the opening two frames were
enough to knock Tusculum starter and 2009 South Atlantic Conference
Pitcher of the Year C.J. Hillyer out of the game having just
pitched 1.2 innings. Hillyer gave up five hits during his time on
the hill and all four of the Pacer runs in the first two frames
were earned.
The Pacers were able to manufacture another run in the top of the
third via Jamie Benjamin, who had singled up the middle to get on
base. Benjamin then stole second to get in scoring position. A
little while later, Benjamin was able to claim third base on a
throwing error by Tusculum catcher Sean Cotten.
With Gary Asbill at bat for the Pacers, Benjamin took advantage of
a wild pitch from Tusculum relief pitcher Rob Currie to score and
give the Pacers a 5-0 lead.
After Sean Finucane scored in the bottom of the fifth for
Tusculum’s first run of the game, USC Aiken would manufacture
another run in the top of the sixth inning. Franklin scored the run
after kicking off the stanza by collecting a double. He waltzed
home easily on a two-base error by the Tusculum rightfielder Jared
Richmond.
The Pioneers down 6-1, Tusculum would cut the Pacer lead down by
one more run in the bottom of the sixth when Aaron Hudgins scored
from third on a throwing error by Howard. The Pioneers would
threaten once again in the bottom of the seventh inning, but with
the bases loaded with two outs USC Aiken starting pitcher Steven
Spire was up to the task in the inning as he struck out
Tusculum’s Tyler Collins to end the Pioneer threat in the
frame.
The Pacers would take advantage of Spire’s proficiency on
the hill in their next at bat, scoring two more runs to take an 8-2
lead. Ken Raborn obtained the first run of the inning for USC Aiken
when he singled up the middle to bring in Franklin. Raborn was then
brought home a little while later for the eighth run of the contest
for the Pacers on a single to right center field by Nick
Aranas.
USC Aiken would tack on another run to acquire the seven-run
win.
A 2009 All-PBC starting pitcher, Spire pitched a complete game
against Tusculum to grab the win from the hill. It was
Spire’s second complete game of the year. Spire threw 150
pitches in the victory.
Hillyer dropped to 7-3 on the season with the loss from the
mound.
Franklin was the star of the contest at the dish for the
top-seeded Pacers. The USC Aiken hitter in the second hole,
Franklin was 4-for-5 with four runs scored and two RBIs.
Finucane led the Pioneers with a 3-for-5 performance. He scored
one run.
Boxscore
Tusculum Head Coach Doug Jones – “It
was another game for us where I thought we had a lot of missed
opportunities. Against good teams like that you can’t do
that, we really needed to get a strong starting performance and we
unable to do that. I thought we had a chance to get out of first
without much damage, but we didn’t”
“Offensively I think our approach was good, but you have to
give it to them.”
“Bottom line, when you get opportunities, you have to
execute and we were unable to do that.”
On the USCA pitcher Steven Spire – “I think
what makes him effective was if you go up and don’t have
discipline against him, he’s going to give you problems. We
struggled early, we chased pitches that were out of the
zone.”
“When we were disciplined, we hit balls hard and right at
people, but when we were not disciplined, he took advantage of
it.”
USCA Head Coach Kenny Thomas – “Well
it was obviously a hard fought ball game. Steven Spire did a great
job; he got us 9 innings which is exactly what the doctor ordered.
He was tired, but he pitched well all the way through. He’s a
guy that tries to let the other team get themselves out. He kept us
in the ball game.”
“We got the running game going, which was big for
me.”
“We live another day, so you never know what’s going
to happen next.”
On player’s approaches to the plate - “We had
much better approaches, we did some things today that we
didn’t do last night. Laid down great bunts, (Alex) Franklin
laid a few tremendous bunts down. We had a much better approach,
much more under control at the plate today. We got two in the first
and second, and that is always good to get ahead early. That
allowed us to go into our game which is run and gun.”
“The positive is Steven Spire got us nine innings and 150
pitches; that helped us a lot.”
“I wanted Steven out there. We warmed someone up out there
in the bull pen, but when he came off in the 7th, he said,
‘I’m good’ and I believed him. He isn’t
going to lie to me.”
“Three o’clock tomorrow will be here before you know
it, but I think our guys will be ready tomorrow.”
“We believe in our bull pen, and we’ve believe in it
all year.”
“I think we relaxed and played like we are capable of
doing.”
“The focus was good. Last night we left here at eleven pm
thinking we have to play again at eleven am but when I got up this
morning, I thought that might be a good thing. We’re getting
to go right back out on field. It might be a positive for us
because we won’t mull around and think about last
night.”
“Nobody even thought about last night, we just came in and
got after it.”
USCA Right Fielder Alex Franklin – Our main
objective was to put pressure on their defense, and it was good we
came out that way.”
On coming out of the visitor’s dug out as opposed to home
where they are normally – “It gave us a chance to get
on the board first. After past the past two games, we needed to get
started in the first couple innings, and I just wanted to get back
out there after last night and get that game behind us.”
“We had to come out and play. It was either win or go home.
And the past couple games we seemed like we had a lot of pressure
on us, and we didn’t play loose but today we played
loose.”
“Being the number one seed, everyone is gunning for us, and
today we just didn’t feel that pressure. We came out and
played our game and that’s what we should have done in the
past couple games.”
USCA Pitcher Steven Spire – “It was
very important to put up runs, it takes the pressure off of me and
the defense, which is good for all of us.”
“About the 5th inning I was feeling it (exhaustion) pretty
good, but we run a lot every day, I run at least 30 minutes every
day and that helped out.”
On using the visiting bull pen – “It’s
the same bull pen to me.”
On the condition of his arm - “It’s ok now, usually a
couple days after is when I start to feel it, as long as I keep
running I might still be good for a couple innings late.”
On the defense behind him – “They (Tusculum)
hit some balls hard, and hard balls got caught and some easy balls
got past, but they made some big plays, and that’s all I
needed them to do, and I did all I had to do.”
Baseball
About the PBC
