Spartanburg, SC – The Stetson baseball team tasted defeat for the first time in Atlantic Sun Conference play on Saturday, falling to USC Upstate 8-1 at Harley Park.
The Hatters (19-17, 4-1) had won each of their first four games to start league play. The Spartans (12-23, 3-5) put that streak to an end by shutting out the Hatters, after the second pitch of the game.
The teams will meet again on Sunday at 1 p.m. to decide the series. That game will be available on ESPN3.
The highlight of the day for the Hatters came on the second pitch of the afternoon by Upstate starting pitcher Blake Whitney (3-1). Junior Cory Reid hit that pitch out of the park to left field, giving the Hatters a quick 1-0 lead.
After that, the Spartans' freshman right-hander kept the Hatters bats quiet the rest of the day, allowing just three more hits over six innings while walking three and striking out two. Richie Lacell came on and pitched three shutout innings for Upstate in relief of Whitney to earn his third save of the year.
Stetson's freshman starting pitcher, Brooks Wilson (7-3) did not fare nearly as well. He came into the game tied for the NCAA lead in wins, but was unable to extend his season total, allowing a season-high-tying six runs on eight hits over just 2.1 innings of work. Wilson also allowed six earned runs in his start at Creighton two weeks ago, but that came over 5.1 innings.
The Spartans quickly tied the game in the bottom of the first when Daniel Fickas, who had three hits in the game, led off with a single, stole second and then scored on a two-out double by Stephen Dowling.
Upstate took the lead in the second, scoring three times on four hits. Erik Samples gave the Spartans the lead with a two-out single to score J.J. Shimko, and then Jake Beaver followed with a two-run single to push the Upstate lead to 4-1.
The Spartans added two more runs in the third on a bases loaded single by Fickas and a sacrifice fly by Samples. The final Upstate runs came in the sixth inning off junior reliever Josh Thorne. Fickas was again the catalyst, singling the open the frame in front of a two-run homer by Samples.
For Stetson, Patrick Mazeika, Garrett Russini and Will Mackenzie accounted for the rest of the Hatters hits following Reid's homer. All had two in the game.
Fickas was joined in a 13-hit attack for the Spartans by Samples with two hits and four RBI, Beaver and Shimko with two hits each.
