SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Northern Illinois University baseball team and the USC Upstate Spartans combined for six home runs Friday at Harley Park, but a five-run fourth inning from USC Upstate led it to an 8-5 win in the One Spartanburg Inc. Baseball Classic.

"We've faced two quality opponents in the last two games, East Carolina and USC Upstate today," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "We're trying to measure how we look against teams that made the postseason a year ago. We were right there with East Carolina until it got away from us late, and the same thing here. If you want to make that next step as a program. you have got to find a way to win games like tonight because it was right there for us."

NIU (2-3) got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) led off with a home run over the right field fence on the first pitch from USC Upstate starting pitcher Chris Torres. After a strikeout and a flyout Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) doubled the Huskies lead to 2-0 with a home run to right field, his second of the season.

USC Upstate (3-3) got one runner on base in the first two innings against NIU starting pitcher Carter Cox (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South). Preston Lucas drew a one-out walk in the second, but Cox shut down the Spartans by getting Kenan Bowman to fly out to Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) in left field and striking out Wiley Waters to end the inning.

The Huskies put another two-spot on the board in the third. Owen Ross (Yorkville, Ill./USC Upstate) led off with a double to left center, advancing to third on a Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) fly out. Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) then launched a two-run home run to give NIU a 4-0 lead.

"I loved the way we came out and scored early," Copeland said. "We got the ball up in the air, on the barrel. It's on offensive park and the wind was the blowing out to right. Carter gave us a couple zeros early. I really like where we're at offensively and we're due to break out here soon."

The Spartans got a run back in the bottom of the third when Jake Armsey lead-off home run. USC Upstate got within a run in the fourth when Waters hit a two-out, two-run home run down the right field line to make the score 4-3. Armsey kept the inning going with a single to left, followed by a Gage Griggs double. Henry Zenor put the Spartans ahead 6-4 with a three-run home run over the right field wall.

NIU had a chance to tie the game in the top of the fifth. Ross led off with a single then got to third base on a Parcell double. Smith hit a groundball to Armsey at third base who threw Ross out at home plate for the first out of the inning. A flyout and a pickoff at second base ended the Huskies' threat.

The Spartans put two more runs on the board in the sixth to take an 8-4 lead. NIU had one last chance to get back in the game in the ninth. The Huskies loaded the bases on a Parcell single, a Smith walk, and a fielder's choice where USC Upstate could not get an out. Juan Reyes came in from the Spartans bullpen and got a strikeout for the second out. Austin Wiegand (Eureka, Ill./John A. Logan College) drew a bases loaded walk to score Parcell and make the score 8-5. Reyes got a groundout to end the game and lock up the USC Upstate win.

Parcell, Dahlberg and Ross each had two hits in the game for NIU. The Huskies had 10 hits to the Spartans' nine. Jacob Kirby earned the win in relief for USC Upstate, throwing four scoreless innings.

"If we get a couple more big hits, run the bases a little bit better, we find a way to put up a lot more runs than just the five there," said Copeland. "A loss is a loss, it's always tough. That's a really good program over there and I like where we stack up, but we have got to find a way to do a little bit more to come out on top."

The Huskies continue this weekend's event on Saturday, Feb. 21 at Presbyterian. First Pitch is at 2 p.m.

—NIU—