PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team embarks on a nine-game Spring Break road trip down to the Palmetto State starting this weekend, taking on USC Upstate for a three-game series at Harley Park.
 
The Quakers (1-3) dropped three of their first four games of the 2024 campaign last weekend at Abilene Christian. The Spartans (4-4) had their four-game win streak snapped by No. 10 Clemson on Tuesday, 12-6.

Due to inclement weather on Friday, Saturday is now a doubleheader set for 2 p.m. with a single game scheduled Sunday for 1 p.m.
 
GAME 5-7: Penn (1-3, 0-0 Ivy) at USC Upstate (4-4, 0-0 Big South)
March 2-3 | Watch (ESPN+) – Game 1, Game 2, Game 3 | Live Stats – All Games
 
The QuakeShow Has Returned
After a remarkable 2023 season, Penn returned to the college baseball landscape last weekend in Abilene, Texas, dropping three games of a four-game set at ACU. The Wildcats walked off and took Game 1, 4-3, before winning the first contest of Saturday's doubleheader.
 
The Quakers won the nightcap, 7-2, courtesy of a strong pitching performance from freshman right-hander Josh Katz, but fell on Sunday, 9-3.
 
Over .400
Two Penn hitters—Davis Baker and Connor Chavez—are hitting north of .400 to begin their 2024 seasons. Baker is slashing .471/.647/.526 and leads the Ivy in hits (8) while Chavez has a slashline of .438/.500/.526 with an OPS of 1.026.
 
Baker, who had at least two knocks in three straight games to begin the season, was named Ivy League Player of the Week on Monday.
 
On The Bump
In his first collegiate start, Katz recorded Penn's lone victory of the weekend with a stellar first outing. He hurled four shutout innings, scattering three hits with five strikeouts and only one walk.
 
Carson Ozmer was also impressive in his first-and-only appearance of the weekend. In Friday's season opener, Ozmer pitched 3.1 shutout innings of relief without surrendering a base hit with five strikeouts.
 
Both Katz and Ozmer were featured on the Ivy League's weekly honor roll for their performances.
 
Henseler Homer Watch
Penn's all-time career leader in home runs, senior Wyatt Henseler, had his first bomb of the 2024 season Saturday at Abilene Christian.
 
With 33 career homers, Henseler is tied with Ryan Lavarnway (Yale '08) for the second-most in Ivy League history. One more would tie him with Pete Greskoff (Brown '11) for the most-ever.
 
Scouting USC Upstate
Prior to its 12-6 defeat at No. 10 Clemson Tuesday evening, USC Upstate had won four games in a row.
 
The Spartans swept their own OneSpartanburg, Inc. Baseball Classic tournament last weekend, beating Quinnipiac (Fri), Canisius (Sat) and Saint Joseph's (Sun) by a combined score of 41-6.
 
Vance Sheahan (.414), Jace Rinehart (.378), Noah Sullivan (.368), Daniel Gernon (.367) and Jake Armsey (.353) are all hitting above .350 to begin the year. Rinehart has a team-high five home runs with 11 RBIs and a 1.341 OPS.
 
On the mound, Mathieu Curtis—who is projected to get the start on Saturday—is 1-1 with a 0.82 over two starts. He's struck out nine and walked three over 11.0 innings of work. Upstate's pitching staff has an ERA of 5.20 with 79 strikeouts and only 27 free passes over eight games.

Series History
This will be just the second-ever series between Penn and USC Upstate in both program's histories. On March 9-10, 2018, the Spartans took two of three from the Quakers at Harley Park.
 
Follow The Action
All three games this weekend will be streamed on ESPN+, with live stats provided.
 
For the latest on Penn baseball, follow @PennBaseball on X (formerly Twitter), @Penn_Baseball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.