AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken baseball team posted a 10-5 victory over Shepherd Saturday afternoon.

Zach Rafuse got the starting nod on the mound, throwing five innings. He gave up five hits and a walk while striking out seven.

Neither team waited to get started, with Shepherd picking up two in the top of the first and the Pacers answering with four of their own in the bottom. With one out on the board, Philip Watcher shot a double straight into left center field. Alex Mills followed with a double of his own out to left field, bringing Watcher home in the process. Conner Durden smacked a single to left to bring Mills across home plate and tie the game. After a walk from Luke Leisenring and with another out on the board, Chandler Rogers hit a single into center to push Leisenring to second. Trey Polewski stepped up and slapped out a single to bring Leisenring for a 4-2 lead for USC Aiken.

The Pacers managed to add another run to the board just an inning later to make it 5-2. Joey Smithers drilled a single to left field and was pushed over to second with a sacrifice bunt from Watcher. A batter later, Durden slammed a double to left, pushing Smithers across home plate.

Not one to sit down, USC Aiken decided to put another one on the board in the bottom of the third. Blake Jenkins made an effective debut with a single over to the shortstop and was helped to second by a sacrifice bunt from Rogers. He then took third on a wild pitch. A Smithers single brought him across home plate to make it 6-2 for the Pacers.

Continuing the trend, USC Aiken added another run in the bottom of the fourth to bring it to 7-2. With two out, Durden stepped up to the plate and tossed a single out to center. After a walk by Leisenring, Jenkins put another single into center field to score Durden.

For the fifth inning in a row, the Pacers put up a single run in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Polewski drew a walk and was pushed over to second by a single from Sean McQuillan. Smithers followed with a single of his own to push Polewski across home plate and make it 8-2.

In a final bout of scoring for the Pacers, they added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. After Durden drew a leadoff walk, he was pushed to second a batter later of a single from Jenkins to right field. Both moved up a base when Polewski gained a base on balls, and Durden and Jenkins came across home when McQuillan dropped a single to center field.

In the top of the eighth, the Rams decided to break their silence in a doomed attempt to catch up with the Pacers. They put up three runs to make the final score 10-5.

For the game, Smithers, Durden and Jenkins all had three hits while McQuillan picked up two. Watcher, Mills, Rogers and Polewski grabbed one hit apiece. Rafuse walked away with the win.

On the mound, William Ard put in two innings worth of work while allowing no hits and striking three out. Austin Sandifer was on the mound for 1.1 innings and Zach Lang worked .2 innings.

The Pacers return to action Sunday afternoon as they host Shepherd for the final game of the series at 1 p.m.