Box Score
CHAPEL HILL, NC – The Winthrop baseball team fell to the 22nd-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels 14-5 on Tuesday evening at Boshamer Stadium, in non-conference action.
The Eagles fall to 13-11 on the season, while the Tar Heels improve to 17-9 overall.
Cody Penny (1-0) tossed 3.0 innings of relief to earn the victory and allowed one run on two hits, one walk and four strikeouts. Matt Pierpont (0-1) took the loss surrendering seven runs (six earned) on nine hits, one walk and no strikeouts in 4.0 innings of work.
“We started out playing pretty well (tonight),” said head coach Joe Hudak. “In the fifth inning they (North Carolina) got a couple of hits and we couldn't stop it after that.”
Winthrop took a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the second inning on Eddie Rohan's first pitch solo home run to left field and Zak Blair's RBI groundout. The homer by Rohan was his ninth of the season. The Eagles used small ball to score the second run as Chas Crane led off the inning with a single and moved his way to third base after a Sean Sullivan infield single and Adam Gliebe's sacrifice bunt.
The Tar Heels tied the game at 2-2 in its half of the second on RBI's from Ryan Graepel and Tommy Coyle before Matt Thielepape gave Winthrop the lead back at 4-2 with his two-run homer off the batter's eye in center field for his second home run of the season.
North Carolina cut the deficit to 4-3 in the third inning before scoring five runs in the fifth to take its first lead of the game at 8-4. The five-run inning was highlighted by Jesse Wierzbicki's two-run homer to right field against Eric Ruth, who came on in relief for Pierpont in the inning. The Tar Heels also received RBI's from Ben Bunting and Levi Michael.
North Carolina would score three runs in the sixth on Michael's two RBI triple to right field and Wierzbicki added an RBI double to center field.
The Eagles made it an 11-5 game in the top of the seventh on Tyler Cook's RBI single, but the Tar Heels responded with three more runs in their half of the inning. Seth Baldwin provided a pinch-hit two RBI double and later came home on Mike Cavasinni's RBI sacrifice fly to left field.
Cook posted a team-high two hits for Winthrop offensively, while Thielepape had two RBI. Graepel and Coyle had two hits apiece for North Carolina and Michael drove in four runs.
“There were some positive things tonight,” Hudak added. “We just have to re-group and get ready for the weekend.”
The Eagles will return to action on Friday, Apr. 2 at 6 p.m. as they travel to Forest City, NC to face the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs in a three-game Big South Conference series.
