Kent State Box Score
Penn State Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball team dropped its first contest of the day to the Kent State Golden Flashes 16-10, but responded against the Penn State Nittany Lions with a 14-13 victory in 10 innings on Saturday evening at The Winthrop Ballpark, on day two of the Coca-Cola Classic.
The Eagles are now 12-7 on the season after Saturday. The Golden Flashes improved their record to 7-11 overall, while the Nittany Lions fall to 5-9.
“It (baseball) is a crazy game,” said head coach Joe Hudak following the Penn State win. “The whole day was an emotional rollercoaster.”
Tyler Fries (1-0) earned his first career victory at Winthrop in the second game throwing one scoreless inning on no hits, no walks and no strikeouts. David Lutz (0-1) surrendered one run on one hit, three walks and two strikeouts in 2.1 innings pitched to take the loss.
“He (Fries) was ready, and came in and gave us a 1-2-3 inning,” Hudak said.
Eddie Rohan hit his first career walk-off home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the tenth off Lutz to give the Eagles to extra-inning win. It was Rohan's third home run of the season and second of the game. He also hit a solo home run in the fourth inning.
“That was an absolute bomb that Eddie hit (in the 10th inning),” added Hudak.
The Nittany Lions scored four runs in the top of the first inning against Winthrop starter Dom Patterozzi on an RBI double by Jordan Steranka and Mario Eramo's three-run double.
The Eagles were able to cut the deficit to 4-3 heading into the fourth inning after scoring two runs in the second and one in the fourth, but Penn State responded with a grand slam homer by Ben Heath over the left field fence against Matt Pierpont.
Winthrop exploded for seven runs in the fifth inning on just two hits to take a 12-8 lead. The Nittany Lion pitching staff allowed six walks in the inning, while Sean Sullivan highlighted the fifth with his two RBI double down the left field line.
Penn State bounced back to tie the game at 13-13 in the seventh inning on a two RBI double by Heath and an RBI groundout by Eramo.
Rohan finished the contest with a 3-for-5 performance with the two home runs and three RBI. Sullivan also posted three RBI, while Tyler Cook and Zak Blair had two RBI each. Heath finished with a game-high seven RBI and Eramo drove in four runs as well for the Nittany Lions. Steranka had a team-best three hits.
Max Vogel (0-1) took the loss in the first game against Kent State allowing four runs on four hits, no walks and no strikeouts in 1.0 inning pitched. Casey Wilson (1-1) came on in relief in the fifth inning and picked up the win tossing 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball and gave up two hits, three walks and one strikeout.
The Eagles were able to jump out to a 4-0 lead after three innings on RBI's by Sullivan, Cook and Tyler McBride. Sullivan drove in the first run of the game with his RBI double to left center field in the first inning, and Cook followed in the second with his first career home run at Winthrop over the right center field fence to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. McBride would drive in Matt Thielepape with his RBI groundout in the third inning after Thielepape led off the inning with a triple.
The Golden Flashes rallied to score nine runs after batting around in the fourth inning highlighted by Anthony Gallas' two-run homer to center field and two-run double to right center field. Kent State would also pick up RBI's from Evan Campbell, Jim Rider and Travis Shaw.
Winthrop managed to tie the game at 10-10 in the fifth inning with Sullivan and Chas Crane driving in two runs each and Thielepape scoring after Pierpont reached on a fielder's choice.
The Golden Flashes would break the game open in the seventh inning scoring five runs to take a 15-10 over the Eagles. Rider, Gallas, Ben Klafczynski and David Lyon drove in runs during the inning, while Lyon came home on a wild pitch for the last run of the inning.
Gallas capped his day off with an RBI triple in the eighth inning to make it a 16-10 game. The triple would complete the cycle for Gallas as he had a team-high six RBI, and also had five hits along with Humphreys. Humphreys, along with Rider, each had two RBI apiece.
Sullivan went 4-for-6 in the first game for Winthrop with two RBI, while Thielepape added three hits. Crane also posted two RBI against Kent State.
“It was a good win for us (against Penn State),” said Hudak. “We played so hard in both games and never quit.”
The Eagles will host the Columbia Lions on Sunday, Mar. 21 at 1:30 p.m. in the consolation game of the Coca-Cola Classic. The Golden Flashes and Nittany Lions will square off in the championship game at 10 a.m.
