Softball | March 21, 2023

Each week, USC Aiken will produce notes. This week, the University of South Carolina Aiken softball team hosts Benedict on Wednesday, March 22 before playing at Columbus State on Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26.

Recapping Last Week

Last week, the USC Aiken softball team took the series from Georgia College & State, winning the first game and the rubber game of the series. Head coach Jaclin Poole's team overcame deficits in each contest to pick up the victory. The Pacers won the first game 3-2 before notching a 5-1 victory in the series finale.

Two Garner Honors

On Monday, Shi Cain and Lakyn Phillips picked up PBC accolades after helping USC Aiken take the series from Georgia College & State. Cain rattled off a pair of home runs and batted .714 on the week while Phillips posted a 0.66 ERA while notching 11 strikeouts.   

Cain Can Crush It

Last week, Shi Cain blasted her seventh and eighth round-trippers of the season, helping USC Aiken take the series from Georgia College & State. Since the 2008 season, only four Pacers have hit more than eight home runs in a season (13 by Hannah Price in 2019, 12 by KB Moore in 202, 10 by Samantha Chubb in 2014 and Emily Ayers in 2022).

Taylor Made

Taylor Butts has three career home runs and all three have been when USC Aiken was in need of a spark. Her first career home run was a two-run shot at YHC last season, giving the Pacers a 2-0 lead. Her second round-tripper broke open a scoreless contest against Lander in the PBC Tournament before Butts' home run against the Bobcats knotted the score at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth.

Sensational Skylar

Twice during the series, Skylar Morley made highlight-reel catches. In the series-opening victory, Morley took off on a dead sprint toward the wall, snagging a line drive out of the air for the final out of the 3-2 victory. In the third game of the series, Morley raced in on a fly ball, plucking it out of the air near the right field line for the final out of the fifth inning as the bases were loaded.

Baker Gets Out Of The Jam

In the series finale, Payton Baker came in to relieve Lakyn Phillips with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. With the bases loaded, Baker forced a fly ball out and then tossed the final 2.1 frames to pick up the save.

Only One

Lakyn Phillips worked 13.2 innings on the week in the series victory over Georgia College & State. She went 2-1 and gave up four runs on 10 hits. However, only one of those runs was earned. Overall, she limited opponents to a .204 batting average and had 11 strikeouts.

Inside The Numbers

This week, the University of South Carolina Aiken softball team hosts Benedict on Wednesday, March 22 before playing at Columbus State on Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26. Since moving to Division II, the Pacers are 96-85-1 (53.0 percent) in Wednesday games, 228-194 (54.0 percent) in Saturday contests and 121-143 (45.8 percent) in Sunday affairs. During the same time, the program is 11-7 on March 22, 17-14 on March 25 and 14-10 on March 26. 

Against The Opponents

This week, the University of South Carolina Aiken softball team hosts Benedict on Wednesday, March 22 before playing at Columbus State on Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26. The Pacers are 18-2 against Benedict in the all-time series. USC Aiken has posted three straight shutouts in the series, but the last time the two programs squared off was in 2020. CSU leads the all-time series 52-21. The last victory for the Pacers in the series was a 14-0 win on Apr. 2, 2016. USC Aiken broke open a scoreless contest with four runs in the fifth and 10 in the sixth. The program had two grand slams in the game (Andrea Daring and Magan Jean Thrower).