SAVANNAH, Ga. – The nationally third-ranked University of South Carolina Aiken baseball team fell 5-2 to No. 17 Armstrong Atlantic State in Peach Belt Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Pirate Field.

USC Aiken (26-10, 15-7 PBC) arrived on the scoreboard first in the top of the first frame when Nick Aranas (Lexington, S.C./Lexington) hit a sacrifice fly to right field to plate Stephen Carmon (Camden, S.C./Camden), who had began the contest by claiming an infield single.

Aranas' sacrifice fly to score Carmon allowed him to become the all-time leader in sacrifice flies in school history.

The early Pacer one-run lead would not last long with Armstrong (25-9, 11-8 PBC) evening things up in the bottom portion of the first with a run of its own. Armstrong would then take its first lead at 2-1 in the bottom of the second stanza.

In the top of the fourth inning, USC Aiken was able to even things up at 2-all. Josh Miller (Chapin, S.C./Chapin) kicked off the frame by singling.

After moving to second on an Aranas ground out, Tyler Bourdo (Evans, Ga./Truett-McConnell College) singled in Miller.

Armstrong would plate two in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead once again at 4-2. The Pirates would add one more in the bottom of the seventh to claim the three-run win.

Chandler Hall pitched all nine innings in the contest for Armstrong to move to 5-2 on the year.

Kelly Holt (Stockbridge, Ga./Middle Georgia) suffered the loss for USC Aiken. Holt, who fanned six in 5.1 innings on the hill, is now 3-4 on the year.

Armstrong out-hit USC Aiken, 7-4, in the game.

Nobody on either team was able to register multiple hits.

The Pacers and Pirates will close their national top-20 showdown with a doubleheader on Sunday, April 8. The doubleheader is slated to begin at 12 p.m.