GREENWOOD – The Lander baseball team defeated USC Aiken 7-3 at Dolny Stadium Friday night on the back of Marshall Thompson's record night.

Thompson became just the second pitcher in program history to strike out 100 or more batters in a single season, and is the first since Will Jones struck out 106 in 2016. Thompson ended the night at 102 strikeouts this season.

Lander moves to 19-18 overall and 15-15 in the PBC while Aiken drops to 19-15 overall and 17-14 in the PBC.

Thompson struck out 13 in seven innings while allowing one earned run on two hits to earn the win. Thompson's 13 strikeouts ties the program record for the most strikeouts in a single game. He's tied this mark three times this season.

Neither side was able to plate any runs in the first two innings until Lander broke things open with five runs in the bottom of the third.

The inning started with four consecutive hits for the Bearcats, as Bradley Davis began the inning with a single up the middle. Ethan Wilder doubled out to right center to put Davis on third before a single through the left side from Bo Richey moves Wilder to third and brought Davis home for the first run of the game. Roury Glanton singled through the right side the next at-bat to score Wilder and make it a 2-0 game. Richey eventually came home to score on a balk while Evan Harold scored Glanton on a two-run bomb to left field to make it 5-0 Bearcats.

The Pacers scored a pair of runs in the top of the fifth off an RBI single.

Lander responded with two runs of its own in the seventh as a wild pitch with the bases loaded brought home a run and Justin Wager singled to the pitcher to bring home the second run of the inning, putting Lander on top 7-2.

Aiken brought home one run in the ninth inning on an RBI double to right center, but was unable to get much closer to the Bearcats.

Davis Agle pitched the final two innings for the Bearcats, allowing a run on four hits while striking out one.

The Bearcats and Pacers resume the series on Sunday with a doubleheader set to start at 1 pm.

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