Palmetto State Baseball team of the week, March 1-7: USC Upstate

USC Upstate (3-0 for the week)
(swept Radford)

Mike McGuire developed a winning program in his previous job at Morehead State and he appears to be on the way to doing the same at USC Upstate.

The Spartans polished off a Big South Conference home sweep of Radford on Saturday to push their5 season-opening winning streak to nine games.

Upstate was 13-5 in McGuire's debut season of 2020, and appears in contention for back-to-back yeara above .500. Upstate had just one winning season in its previous 12 years in NCAA Division I. The Spartans had three consecutive winning seasons to complete their stint in Division II.

McGuire, a former player at South Carolina, has two stints as an assistant coach at Winthrop and some time as head coach at Lander on his resume.

The Spartans have shown they are well-rounded. Upstate is batting .313, has a 3.00 team ERA and has struck out 103 in 81 innings. A fielding percentage of .981 includes nine double plays.

Up next for the Spartans: at Clemson Tuesday.

Also considered
Anderson (3-1)
Charleston Southern (2-1) - first opening series win in Big South play since 2009
Coastal Carolina (2-1)
Erskine (5-1)
Francis Marion (4-0)
Newberry (3-1)
North Greenville (5-1)
South Carolina (4-0)
Spartanburg Methodist (2-0)
USC Sumter (4-0)
Voorhees (1-2) - snapped 17-game losing streak back to April 28, 2019

Previous winners
Jan. 29-Feb. 7: Lander
Feb. 8-14: USC Beaufort
Feb. 15-21: North Greenville
Feb. 22-28: South Carolina