SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Charleston Southern opened their weekend series at conference-leading USC Upstate on Friday night. The teams had to battle a two-hour lightning delay during the game with the Spartans ultimately coming away with a 10-7 victory.
 
"I'm not sure what more the Big South could ask for tonight between these two teams," said Head Coach Marc MacMillan. "Neither team was perfect, but both competed and put on quite a display. In the end, they were better than us on the mound and offensively."

USC Upstate jumped on top in the game early courtesy of a solo home run to left field in the second inning to put them ahead 1-0.
 
The Bucs responded quickly by getting the run back in the top of the third as a Gavin Bogdanchik single drove Cade Conway home to level the score at one apiece. The Spartans answered quickly hitting a pair of homers in the bottom of the third, the first scoring one run with the second scoring two, putting USC Upstate ahead at 4-1. The Spartans bashed their fourth home run of the game in the 4^th inning, putting them ahead now at 5-1.
 
In one of the final plays before the lightning delay, Chandler Tuupo had a two-run home run to right field to draw CSU closer. Shortly after, the first lighting strike hit at 4:32 p.m. and delayed the game until 6:40 p.m. Coming out of the break, USC Upstate scored off a single to center field to put their lead at 6-3.
 
Charleston Southern then went on to score in each of the next three innings, tallying four runs to take the lead. The Bucs scored their first in the 6^th off a Christian Bauman single and then got the next on a Cade Conway groundout. In the 7^th, Dakota Miller smashed a home run of his own to left field to tie it on the first pitch of the inning. Bauman gave the Bucs their first lead of the day as he led the 8^th inning off with a home run to right field to put CSU in front at 7-6.
 
USC Upstate did not trail for long, scratching four runs across the plate in the bottom of the 8^th, regaining the lead at 10-7.
 
Matt Gallant had the start on the bump for the Bucs throwing 4.0 innings in the game. Anthony Ramirez threw the next 2.0, allowing one earned run to score. Evan Truitt had the next 1.2 of the game while Tyler Henshaw recorded the final Spartans out of the game.
 
As a team, Charleston Southern finished with 12 hits in the game with five different Bucs finish with two hits. Bauman, Conway, Tuupo, Bogdanchik and Miller each had the multiple hits while Evann Long and JJ Rivera had one each. Tuupo led the team with two RBIs with Bauman, Conway, Bogdanchik and Miller adding one apiece.
 
After the game, it was announced that tomorrow will now be a doubleheader between the two squads. Due to inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday, the game had to be moved up. The first game will be contested at 2:00 p.m. with the second game to begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one.