Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball team defeated the Columbia Lions 11-5 on Friday evening at The Winthrop Ballpark, on the first day of the Coca-Cola Classic.
The Eagles improve to 11-6 on the season with the victory, while the Lions fall to 3-9 overall.
“I thought we played the small game very, very well early on (today), and then later on in the game we got some big hits,” said head coach Joe Hudak. “Obviously, we executed very well offensively.”
Matteo D'Angelo (2-2) picked up the win tossing 5.1 innings and gave up five runs on six hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Harrison Slutsky (0-2) took the loss surrendering seven runs (four earned) on five hits, five walks and one strikeout.
Winthrop struck first in the bottom of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead on Adam Gliebe's RBI sacrifice bunt back to Slutsky. Tyler McBride came home on the bunt by Gliebe after reaching on a base-on-balls, stole second and moved to third after a single to left field by Sean Sullivan.
The Eagles added another run in the bottom of the third when Zak Blair came home on a wild pitch by Slutsky. Blair led off the inning with a single to right field and moved all the way to third on Eddie Rohan's sacrifice bunt.
Columbia tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning highlighted by an RBI double down the right field line by Jason Banos. Jon Eisen scored on the hit by Banos after leading off the fourth with a single to center field. Banos later came home after Dario Pizzano reached on a fielder's choice.
Winthrop responded with another run in its half of the fourth to re-take the lead at 3-2. Sullivan scored after Tyler Donovan's suicide squeeze back to Slutsky. Sullivan reached on a leadoff walk and advanced to third after Gliebe's sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch.
The Eagles made it a 7-2 game in the bottom of the fifth inning after driving in four runs. Matt Thielepape drove in Rohan with his RBI single to left field for the first run of the inning after Rohan walked in his at-bat and moved to second after Chas Crane reached on an error by the shortstop. Thielepape and Crane later scored on Sullivan's bases-clearing double to left field. Sullivan would come home on Gliebe's RBI double to the left center field gap.
The Lions cut the deficit to 7-5 in the sixth inning on Alex Ferrera's three-run homer off D'Angelo to right field. Banos and Alexander Aurrichio all came home on the long ball by Ferrera. Both Banos and Aurrichio singled in their at-bats.
Winthrop responded with three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase its lead to 10-5 over Columbia. Cook began the inning with a double down the left field line and later scored after a throwing error by the pitcher attempting to pick Rohan off at first base. McBride drove in two more runs with his double into the left center field gap four batters later.
Sullivan hit his second home run of the season in the eighth inning to give the Eagles an 11-5 advantage. The homer capped off a 4-for-4 performance for the sophomore right fielder, who also drove in three runs.
McBride and Gliebe also posted two RBI each for Winthrop, while Banos had a team-best two hits and Ferrera drove in three runs for the Lions.
“This is something we have to build on,” Hudak added. “It was a real good game for us today. We had a lot of guys contribute, and it was good to see that.”
The Eagles will host the Kent State Golden Flashes and Penn State Nittany Lions in a double-header on Saturday, Mar. 20 during the second day of the Coca-Cola Classic. Winthrop will square off with the Golden Flashes at 2:30 p.m., and then face the Nittany Lions at 6 p.m.
