SALISBURY, N.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken baseball team dropped a 9-8 decision to Catawba Tuesday afternoon. The Pacers are now 13-5 on the season while the Indians are 16-5 overall.
Connor Christensen got the starting nod on the mound, throwing 2.1 innings.
The Pacers didn't hesitate, jumping onto the board in the top of the first grabbing three runs.
Sean McQuillan smacked a leadoff single straight to the pitcher to get to first and was followed up by
Luke Leisenring's own single to left center.
Conner Durden drew a walk to push everyone over and load the bases.
Blake Jenkins' foul out to right field to brought McQuillan home and moved Leisenring over to third.
Trey Polewski stepped up and slammed a double to right field that pulled Leisenring across home plate and moved Durden over to third. With runners on the corners, both
Philip Watcher and
Scott Huntley drew walks, pushing Durden across home to make it 3-0 in favor of USC Aiken.
While Catawba put one up in the bottom of the first, the Pacers canceled it out with a run of their own in the top of the third. Jenkins stepped up and shot a homer over the left field wall to put the Pacers up 4-1.
The Indians struck back in the bottom of the inning though, putting up four runs to take the lead and then another three two innings later in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-4.
The Pacers answered with four runs of their own in the top of the seventh. With
Alex Mills on first after grabbing a walk, Jenkins blasted a home run to left field bringing both around. Two batters later,
Chandler Rogers pinch hit for Huntley and singled straight up the middle to take first and was brought home on
Jackson Hannon's follow up home run to even things up at 8-8 all.
Ultimately though, Catawba was able to grab the one run they needed in the bottom of the seventh to finish things off.
For the game, Leisenring and Polewski each had three hits while McQuillan and Jenkins grabbed two hits apiece. Hannon, Rogers and Watcher picked up one hit each.
On the mound,
Daniel Wiggins put in two innings worth of work while allowing three hits and striking one out.
Henry Cartrett also threw for one inning and struck out one with no hits.
Lindsey Robinson Jr. walked away with the loss.
The Pacers return to action Friday, March 8 as they take on the North Georgia Nighthawks on the road at 6 p.m.