Box Score AIKEN, S.C. – The nationally 14th-ranked University of South Carolina Aiken baseball team opened up its three-game Peach Belt Conference series with Georgia Southwestern with a 10-2 victory over the Hurricanes on Friday evening at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.
The two teams will close out their three-game league set with a doubleheader at the 'Bert on Saturday, Mar. 17. The first game of the doubleheader is now set to begin at 12 p.m.
Strong pitching paced USC Aiken (17-6, 8-5 PBC) in its victory with Wyatt Brown and Kelly Holt combining to strike out 16 on Friday.
Brown (Suwanee, Ga./Middle Georgia) pitched the first four innings of the game before giving way to Holt, who fanned 12 in his five innings on the hill.
Holt (Stockbridge, Ga./Middle Georgia) picked up the victory in the game to improve to 2-3 on the year.
Georgia Southwestern's Matthew Suggs suffered the loss in the game, allowing eight runs and 11 hits in his 5.2 innings on the mound.
USC Aiken overall out-hit Georgia Southwestern (4-20, 2-10 PBC), 15-9, on Friday evening.
Three Pacers finished with three hits each in the win over Georgia Southwestern with Will Tankersley (Thomson, Ga./Thomson), Bill Gerstenslager (Solon, Ohio/Mercyhurst) and Ty Barkell (Denver, Colo./Palmer Ridge) each rapping out three in the Pacer win. Tankersley also scored three runs, while Gerstenslager claimed three RBIs. Gerstenslager also scored a run.
Barkell had three RBIs in the Pacer victory.
Stephen Carmon (Camden, S.C./Camden) and Tyler Bourdo (Evans, Ga./Truett-McConnell College) concluded the win over Georgia Southwestern as the final Pacers with multiple hits with two.
Bourdo with his two hits extends his current hitting streak to 14 games. He has reached base in 21 straight games.
Corey Benson led Georgia Southwestern in its loss with three hits.
USC Aiken started the game off by scoring five runs in the bottom of the first inning. They would then add one run each in the third, fourth and sixth innings to take an 8-2 lead.
Gerstenslager would place the punctuation mark on a strong evening for the Pacers with a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
