Each week, USC Aiken will produce notes. This week, the University of South Carolina Aiken baseball team plays five games across five days. The Pacers play the Belmont Abbey Crusaders in a two-day stint on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday's contest will be held at Abbey Yard in Belmont, N.C., while Wednesday's game will be played at home in Roberto Hernandez Stadium. USC Aiken stays at home for a three-game conference series against the Georgia Southwestern Hurricanes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Recapping Last Week
Head coach
Michael Holder's team finished last week 2-1 after winning a weather induced doubleheader on Thursday, but losing the series finale on Friday. The Pacers are 25-12 on the season and are in first place in the PBC at 17-4.
Walk Off Double
USC Aiken trailed until the bottom of the ninth in game one against Augusta.
Joseph Mozingo played the hero with a two-run double giving the Pacers the 7-6 win.
Two Round Trippers For Tripp
After the Jags tied the score in the top of the third inning in game two, the first of two home runs by
Nick Tripp broke the tie. His first homer was solo. For his second round tripper of the night, Tripp hit a two-run home run that also scored
Justin Byrd and stretched the score to the 6-3 final.
Homers To Go Around
In addition to Tripp's two home runs in game two,
Jackson Hannon and Byrd each had two-run homers in game one. Hannon went four-for-five on the night with a double to go along with the home run, scored three runs and collected two RBI.
Strikeout Kings
Jacob Fletcher started game one and worked seven innings while
Joel Haney started game two and worked 6.2 innings. The pair combined for 16 strikeouts with 10 swinging. In the fourth inning of game two, Haney produced a 1-2-3 inning for the Jags with all three batters striking out swinging.
Inside The Numbers
Since moving to Division II, the Pacers are 112-47 (70.4 percent) on Tuesdays and 137-64 (68.2 percent) in Wednesday contests. Across the weekend, they are 155-108 (58.9 percent) in Friday games, 356-239 (59.8 percent) in Saturday matchups and 213-155 (57.9 percent) on Sundays. During that same time, the team is 10-7 on April 11, 11-3 on April 12, 12-7 on April 14, 11-10 on April 15 and 14-7 on April 16.
Against The Opponents
USC Aiken is 7-6 all-time against the Crusaders. The last time these two teams met was February 2014. This Tuesday's matchup will be the second time the Pacers have played them away. The last away game was in 2009 in which the Pacers won. At home, Holder's team is 6-5 and currently has a three-game winning streak against the Crusaders.
Against the Hurricanes, the Pacers are 30-14 with a home record against the conference foes of 17-5. Last season, the pair met in Americus, Ga., in an away series for the Pacers. USC Aiken lost the first game due to the run rule, but won the last two games of the weekend by a combined 15-2 including a 7-0 shutout.
