Mar. 13, 2001

       ROCK HILL, SC- The Winthrop baseball team picked up a big win over North Carolina State 5-3 at Knight’s Stadium, Tuesday evening. 

Josh Ury’s single up the middle in the seventh inning scored Bennett Stapf, giving the Eagles a 4-3 lead. Brian Snyder scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth to give the Eagles insurance.

 Winthrop (16-4-1) jumped ahead 1-0 in the first inning when Jon Gore scored all the way from first on a Todd Leathers’ double to right center. The Wolfpack bounced back to tie the game at 1-1 in the top of the second. David Hicks led off the inning with a double and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Hicks then scored when Justin Riley grounded out to second base.

Jason Colson gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning as he took a Derek McKee offering over the left centerfield fence for his fourth of the season. Again, the Wolfpack managed to tie the game up. In the top of the fifth, they had a man on second and third with no outs after back-to-back singles. Joe Gaetti scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Dutton. But that was all they got.

         Winthrop grabbed a one-run lead again in the sixth inning when Jordan Webb singled just past a diving first baseman, scoring Thurmond. And in the top of the seventh N.C. State tied the game again. Gaetti was on third and Jeremy Dutton grounded to short and Jon Gore booted the ball, but Gaetti would have scored anyway.

          Ben Thurmond threw a complete game allowing three runs on nine hits, one walk and nine strikeouts. He improved to 3-1. Stas Swerdzewski, Webb and Leathers each had two hits.

          For N.C. State, Derek McKee lasted seven innings allowing four runs on nine hits, walked two and five strikeouts. Joe Gaetti finished the game 2-for-4 with two runs, Sean Walsh was 2-for-4 and David Hicks finished 3-for-4.

         Winthrop will be back in action again on Wednesday when it faces Fairfield at 6:30 p.m. at the Winthrop Ballpark.