ROCK HILL SC—The No. 6 seeded Winthrop baseball team will face No. 3 Longwood on the opening day of the 2016 Big South Conference Championship Tournament that gets underway on Tuesday and runs through Saturday at the Lexington County Baseball Stadium in Lexington, SC.
MATCH SNAPSHOT
Winthrop (28-25, 12-12 BSC) vs. Longwood (30-25,14-10 BSC)
Game 1: Tuesday, May 24 | Lexington Baseball Stadium (Lexington, SC)
Live Stats | Live Video
AT A GLANCE
The Eagles enter the game coming off a 7-4 victory over Gardner-Webb this past Saturday. Winthrop out-hit the Bulldogs 13-7, exploding for five runs in the top of the 9th for a come from behind victory. Zach Cook earned the win for the Eagles and finished with a 3-3 record on the season.
Winthrop is hitting .281 as a squad. Anthony Paulsen has been a backbone of the offense all year, batting a team high .361 with 79 hits, 33 RBIs, and 53 runs. Roger Gonzalez is hitting .338 with a team high 43 RBIs and has compiled 66 hits. Mark Lowrie and Derron Davis are also batting above .300 on the season.
The Eagles' pitching staff has a combined 4.83 ERA on the year. The probable starter for Tuesday's game is Sam Kmiec who finished the regular season with a 6-6 record and a 3.47 ERA. Kmiec pitched a team high 90.2 innings while fanning 69 batters along the way.
ABOUT OPPONENT
Longwood enters the matchup on a four game losing streak, dating back to when the Eagles defeated the Lancers 4-2 earlier this month (5/15/16). Longwood's lineup hit .264 on the season and their pitching staff had a 4.49 ERA.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 9th meeting between the two teams. Winthrop holds a 5-3 advantage over the Lancers despite dropping the series two games to one earlier this month.
The Big South Championship tournament is a double-elimination format and features eight squads competing for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals -- highlighted by a "Winner-Take-All" championship game on Saturday that will be televised live on ESPNU for the first time.
Winthrop (28-25, 12-12 BSC) and Longwood (30-25, 14-10) will play the second game on Tuesday which is scheduled to start 45 minutes following the 9:30 a.m. tournament opener between No. 2 High Point and No. 7 Liberty.
Winthrop and Longwood met just two weeks ago in Rock Hill with the Lancers claiming the series with 6-1 and 12-3 wins while the Eagles salvaged the third game with a 4-2 victory. Longwood actually finished conference play in a three-way tie for second place with High Point and Gardner-Webb, and was seeded third due to tie breakers.
Coastal Carolina, which is making its final appearance in the Big South Conference Championship before moving to the Sun Belt Conference, is the No. 1 seed after finishing the conference season with a 21-3 record.
The Big South Championship tournament is a double-elimination format and features eight squads competing for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals -- highlighted by a "Winner-Take-All" championship game on Saturday that will be televised live on ESPNU for the first time.
