Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball concluded its three-game series with the Wagner Seahawks on Sunday afternoon, and came away with a 16-4 win at The Winthrop Ballpark.
The Eagles record improves to 7-0 on the season, while the Seahawks fall to 0-3.
The seven straight wins to open the season is the best since 2005 when Winthrop opened with a 7-0 mark.
Wade Newman (2-0) tossed 5.0 innings on Sunday and gave up four runs on eight hits, no walks and six strikeouts en route to the victory. Dale Hering took the loss after allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits, one walk and one strikeout in 1.1 inning of work.
The Eagles jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Matt Thielepape's RBI single to right field that scored Zak Blair from third base. Blair reached on a walk in his at-bat, stole second and moved to third after a wild pitch by Hering.
Winthrop added three runs in the second inning to increase their lead over Wagner to 4-0. Adam Gliebe got the scoring started with his RBI single to right center field that drove in Tyler McBride. McBride led off the inning with a single and went to third on Taylor Lang's double down the left field line. Gliebe later scored on Sean Sullivan's single. Tyler Donovan would score the final run of the inning on a wild pitch by Jack Rice, who came on in relief of Hering.
The Seahawks cut the deficit to 4-1 in the top of the third after Jared Gruccio singled home Kevin McDonnell from second base. McDonnell started things off with a single to right field and would advance to second on Damian Csakai's single.
Wagner made it a 4-2 game in the fourth inning after Vin Avella came home on a wild pitch by Newman. Avella led off with a double over the head of McBride in center field and Seth Boyd followed with a single that moved Avella over to third.
The Eagles broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the fourth to increase their lead to 9-2. The inning was highlighted by Matt Pierpont's grand slam to left field with two outs. Eddie Rohan also added an RBI sacrifice fly to right field earlier in the inning.
”It was obviously a huge hit (the grand slam by Pierpont) for us at the time,” said head coach Joe Hudak. “We were fortunate to get the big hit from Matt. That kind of put the game away.”
Avella drove in two more runs with his double in the fifth inning off the left field wall. Csakai and Gruccio both scored on the double after Csakai was hit by a pitch and Gruccio singled to center field.
Winthrop scored one run in the bottom of the seventh on Sullivan's RBI single down the left field line. Gliebe would score on the double after he singled and moved to second when Donovan sacrificed him over.
The Eagles posted a six-run eighth inning to go up 16-4 that started when Patrick Gamblin reached on an error by the first baseman with two outs. Max Vogel drove in Gamblin for the first run of the inning, and Tyler Cook's RBI single two batters later scored Chas Crane. Austen Barber would get his first collegiate hit on a two RBI double scoring Sullivan and Vogel. Thielepape followed with a two-run double of his own that brought home Cook and Barber.
“It was a good weekend for us,” Hudak added.
Thielepape went 3-for-5 on the afternoon for Winthrop, while Pierpont drove in four runs. Donovan also had two hits, while Sullivan and Barber both added two RBI apiece. Avella had a team-high two RBI for the Seahawks, while posting two hits along with Gruccio and Tommy Higgins.
The Eagles will be back in action on Tuesday, Mar. 2 as they travel to Winston-Salem, NC to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at 4 p.m. It will be the first road game of the season for Winthrop.
