AIKEN, S.C. – A pair of first-time home run shots led the 27th-ranked University of South Carolina Aiken baseball team to a 10-2 victory over the visiting Raiders of Shippensburg at Roberto Hernandez Stadium Friday afternoon.

The victory lifts the nationally-ranked Pacers to 6-2 for the 2011 season while Shippensburg falls to 0-7 overall.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Pacers mounted a three-inning scoring drive that saw seven Pacers cross the plate to lift USC Aiken to the early 8-0 lead.

Teddy Leverett (Evans, Ga./Truett-McConnell) kindled the Pacers' fire as he led off the third inning with a triple to right-center field before Stephen Bellantoni (Oviedo, Fla./Lake Sumter) batted him in with a sacrifice fly to fight field.

Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week Stephen Carmon (Camden, S.C./Camden) followed Bellantoni with a double and then raced home when Josh Miller (Chapin, S.C./Chapin) tripled to the wall in left-center field. Miller would cross the dish himself just moments later when J.J. Loker (Elkton, Va./Spotswood) hit the ball straight at the second baseman who turned the play at first while Miller slid home to give USC Aiken a 3-0 lead.

Second baseman Tyler Bourdo (Evans, Ga./Truett-McConnell) led off the bottom of the fourth inning with his first career home run as a Pacer to continue USC Aiken's scoring drive.

Carmon picked up an RBI a few batters later as he sent the ball on a ride with a double that was enough to score Leverett from third base.

Miller would score Bellantoni with a sacrifice fly to right field to put the score at 6-0 before the inning was over.

The Pacers continued their scoring drive in the fifth inning with two more runs as Tim Taylor (Columbia, S.C./USC Sumter) scored off Jowan Gray's double to left-center field.  Gray (Aiken, S.C./South Aiken) wasted little time finding his way to home plate when Leverett singled at the next at-bat.

The Raiders attempted to avoid the shutout in the top of the seventh inning as they loaded the bases with just one out, but the Pacers' defense, led by Carmon, turned a double play to maintain their 8-0 lead.

Despite being able to defend against the Raiders' attack in the seventh inning, USC Aiken was not able to hold off Shippensburg's attempts in the top of the eighth inning as the Raiders pushed two across the plate to avoid the shutout.

USC Aiken would answer with a pair of runs of their own in the Pacer half of the inning as Leverett led off by ripping a home run over the right field wall just a couple batters before Loker sent a single up the middle to bring Bellantoni home and give USC Aiken their final 10-2 lead.

USC Aiken as a team recorded 17 hits to the Raiders' seven.

Carmon and Leverett were both perfect at the plate, going 3-for-3 in the contest. Carmon also recorded an RBI and one run while Leverett just missed out on the cycle, lacking just a double, as he batted in two runs and crossed the plate three times himself.

Miller and Loker both recorded two RBIs on the afternoon while Bellantoni was the only other Pacer besides Leverett to score multiple runs.

Thomas McLeod (Chapin, S.C./Chapin) pitched seven and a third innings to record the win on the mound for USC Aiken. He fanned six batters en route to moving to 2-1 on the young season.

Jimmy Miller suffered the loss for Shippensburg as he gave up six earned runs and failed to strike out a single batter to fall to 0-2 for the year.

USC Aiken and Shippensburg will continue their three-game weekend series with two 1 p.m. games this weekend on both Saturday, Feb. 19 and Sunday, Feb. 20.