April 7, 2008

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Sophomore pitcher Matt Branham (Columbia, S.C./Spring Valley) became the first USC Upstate baseball player to earn an honor from the Atlantic Sun Conference, as the conference office announced Monday that Branham has earned A-Sun Pitcher of the Week honors after his dominating complete game at Gardner-Webb on Sunday.

Branham pitched his first career nine-inning complete game, allowing six hits and one run while striking out 10 to lead the Upstate to a 2-1 win in the first game of a doubleheader at Gardner-Webb. He was dominating in his start, throwing a career-high nine innings and striking out a career-high 10. He had thrown eight innings three times in his career and he surpassed his previous best of seven strikeouts against Tusculum on Feb. 14, 2007 in his second career start.

Branham, who is now 4-2 on the year, walked two and hit one batter and three Upstate errors helped runners reach in six innings, but Gardner-Webb only got to third base three times. After the sixth, no runner got past first and he capped the game with a strikeout on a devastating hook with his 131st pitch of the game.

The 6-5 right-hander has been very impressive for the Spartans in his last two starts, as he threw eight innings of shutout baseball in a win against Jacksonville on March 28. He has given up just one earned run in his last 17 innings.

Upstate heads back home to Harley Park where it has an 11-3 record this year, when it plays Appalachian State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in non-conference action.