Box Score
AIKEN, S.C. – The 16th-ranked USC Aiken
baseball team celebrated 11th-year head baseball coach
Kenny Thomas passing the 900-win plateau for career victories with
a 9-3 win over Urbana on Tuesday evening at Roberto Hernandez
Stadium.
Thomas was honored for obtaining his 900th victory in USC
Aiken's series-clinching 7-3 victory over Francis Marion on
Sunday, March 7 in Florence, S.C. prior to Tuesday's game
against Urbana.
Coach Thomas currently has an overall record of 901-449 in 23
seasons as a head coach. Thomas has acquired 381 of the 901 wins in
11 years as the Pacer head mentor. He is currently 12 wins away
from becoming the all-time leader in total wins in Pacer baseball
history.
In an ironic twist, Thomas was honored on an evening in which
they played a team coached by one of his former players in Mike
Goldschmidt. Thomas coached Goldschimdt at Volunteer State
Community College.
The victory over Urbana on Tuesday evening improved the
nationally-ranked Pacers to 12-7 overall. The Pacers have won nine
of their last 10 games.
Urbana opened things in the game by taking a 3-0 lead through
the first two and a half innings. USC Aiken would even things up in
the bottom portion of the third inning with three runs to square
the game at 3-3.
The three runs came on three straight two-out RBI singles by
Bill Rice (Sewell, N.J./Gloucester County), Travis Howard (Bonneau,
S.C./USC Salkehatchie) and Nick Aranas (Lexington, S.C./Lexington).
Matt Key (New Ellenton, S.C./Silver Bluff) changed the game
totally in USC Aiken's favor in the bottom of the sixth
inning with a three-run home run to right field. The tater scored
Aranas and Josh Miller (Chapin, S.C./Chapin). Aranas had arrived on
base via a single, while Miller was hit by Urbana starting pitcher
Cody Lawhorn to put runners at first and second for Key.
The Pacers would post one more run in the frame to go up 7-3.
Alex Franklin (North Augusta, S.C./North Augusta) scored the run on
a balk by Urbana relief pitcher Julius Storey.
A couple innings later, USC Aiken would take advantage of
another Urbana pitching miscue to take a 8-3 lead when Stephen
Carmon (Camden, S.C./Camden) scored on a wild pitch by Urbana
reliever Garrett Clark. Rice picked up a 9-3 lead for the Pacers in
the bottom of the eighth when he sacrificed to left field to bring
in Franklin.
USC Aiken reliever Joe Tart (Charlotte, N.C./Marion Military
College) acquired the win on the hill for the Pacers in the game to
move to 1-0 on the year. Tart struck out three in two innings on
the mound in relief of Pacer starting pitcher Tyler Stephan
(Louisville, Ky./Trinity), who dealt the first five innings and
struck out four Blue Knight batters.
Lawhorn suffered the loss for Urbana in 5.2 innings on the
mound. Lawhorn allowed six earned runs and nine hits in total.
USC Aiken as a team finished with 13 hits to Urbana's 10.
Three Pacers finished with multiple hits with Howard and Aranas
leading the way with three hits each. Howard went 3-for-5 with one
RBI, while Aranas was 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.
Key was 2-for-3 in the game, collecting three RBIs and scoring
one run on his three-run jack in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Carmon was 2-for-4 with one run scored.
Urbana was led by Andrew Harrell and Owen Donelon in the contest
with both players collecting two hits in the six-run loss.
The Pacers will next play Pfeiffer at 6 p.m. tomorrow
(Wednesday) at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.
