ROCK HILL, SC– The Winthrop Eagles baseball team will open its 2006 season with a three-game series at the University of Miami this weekend. First pitch for Friday is slated for 2 p.m., while Saturday and Sunday have 1 p.m. start times.
The Hurricanes, who opened their 2006 season with 17-3 and 5-0 wins over Florida International, lead the overall series 3-0. The two teams last faced each other in a three-day series from May 14-16, 1999, with the Eagles falling 17-1, 9-2 and 8-2. That same year Miami went on to defeat Florida State 6-5 in the championship game of the College World Series.
Junior RHP/outfielder Heath Rollins will take the mound for the Eagles on Friday facing Miami’s RHP Carlos Guiterrez (1-0, 0.00). Selected the Big South Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year, Rollins went 11-6 with a 3.33 ERA and 114 strikeouts in his impressive sophomore campaign. Named preseason All-America by Collegiate Baseball and the RosenblattReport.com and to the 2006 Wallace Watch List by the College Baseball Foundation, Rollins also ranked among team and conference leaders in batting (.341), hits (85) and runs scored (57) last season and collected a conference-leading 29 stolen bases.
Senior LHP Chase Edwards will start for Winthrop on Saturday against the Hurricane’s leftie Manny Miguelez (1-0, 0.00). Entering his fourth season with the Eagles, Edwards has a career 7-10 record and 5.09 ERA. In 46 appearances (28 starts), the senior from Chapin, SC, has struck out 70 batters in 129.2 innings of work.
Freshman RHP Alex Wilson will make his debut for the Eagles on Sunday squaring off against Miami’s RHP Danny Gil. Wilson, West Virginia’s 2005 Gatorade Player of the Year, made a splash in the fall season to quickly earn a spot in the starting rotation. In his senior season at Hurricane High School, which also produced former Eagle standout Daniel Carte, Wilson was 7-1 with a 0.67 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 64 innings.
Both teams enter the series holding positions in various national polls. The Eagles are ranked 26th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll and 28th in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 40 preseason poll. Miami is ranked 11th by Collegiate Baseball, 18th by RosenblattReport.com and 13th by the NCBWA.
Miami returns 15 lettermen from a 2005 team that finished 41-19-1 (10-19-1 in ACC play) and lost 6-3 to Nebraska in the Lincoln NCAA Super Regional. Named to Baseball America’s All-America Second-Team and the 2006 Wallace Watch List, Hurricane outfielder Jon Jay leads the Miami offense, batting a team-high .408 in 2005.
