Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball team wrapped up a three-game series against the Radford Highlanders on Sunday afternoon by splitting a doubleheader at The Winthrop Ballpark. The Eagles took game one 8-5, while the Highlanders clinched the series victory with a 9-4 win in game two.
Winthrop's record is now 19-20 on the season and 7-8 in the conference, while Radford is 20-19 overall and 8-7 in conference play.
“We played hard and I thought the whole team was in the game from the get-go,” said head coach Joe Hudak after the first game. “This was a huge ballgame for us.”
Matteo D'Angelo (5-3) earned his third straight victory on the mound throwing 7.0 innings and gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits, one walk and tied a career-high with nine strikeouts.
Eddie Butler (4-3) took the loss in game one allowing seven runs (six earned) on 15 hits, two walks and two strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work. Tyler Mizenko (4) picked up the save tossing 1.2 innings and surrendered one run on no hits, two walks and one strikeout.
“I thought we got a good outing from Matteo today,” Hudak added.
The Eagles plated three runs in the bottom of the first to go up 3-0 on RBIs from Chas Crane, Adam Gliebe and Matt Pierpont. Crane started the scoring with his RBI single to left field and later scored on the RBI single by Pierpont. Eddie Rohan came home on the RBI hit by Gliebe.
The Highlanders added a run in the second inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by Alex Guerra, but Winthrop answered with a run in its half of the second on Tyler Cook's RBI double down the left field line to increase the lead to 4-1.
Reggie Keen led off the fourth inning for Radford with a solo home run to left center field to trim the Eagles lead at 4-2.
Both teams traded two runs each in the fifth and sixth innings to make it 6-4 in favor of Winthrop. Crane came home for the first run of the fifth after Pierpont hit into a double play and Patrick Gamblin followed with his RBI single to left field. The Highlanders responded with an RBI double by Matt Mack and Rick Hoogstraten's pinch-hit RBI single.
Gamblin added his second RBI of the game for the Eagles with his double down the left field line in the bottom of the seventh, but Radford cut the deficit to 7-5 in the top of the eighth when Guerra scored on an error by Gamblin at first base.
Crane added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning with his solo homer to right field to give Winthrop an 8-5 advantage. The long ball was his sixth of the season and capped off a 3-for-4 performance in game one and tied Gamblin for a team-high in RBI with two.
Seven different Radford hitters posted one hit each, while four players had one RBI apiece.
In game two, Bobby Bolling (2-1) was awarded with the victory pitching 5.2 innings and gave up four runs on six hits, no walks and six strikeouts. Wade Newman (4-3) took the loss hurling 3.0 innings and surrendered six runs (five earned) on four hits, one walk and three strikeouts.
The Highlanders wasted no time jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first highlighted by a two-run homer to right field by Raphael Turner. Matt Hillsinger began the scoring with his RBI double to center field and Matt Mack followed Turner with a solo homer two batters later.
The Eagles cut the lead to 4-2 after the bottom of the first when Tyler McBride posted an RBI double into the left center field gap and Gliebe drove in McBride with an RBI groundout, but Radford would increase its lead to 8-2 after scoring a run in the third inning and three in the fourth. Turner drove in his second run of the contest with a sacrifice fly in the third and Mack led off the fourth inning with his solo home run to left field. It was the second long ball of the game for Mack. Brett Mollenhauer and Reggie Keen also had an RBI each in the fourth. The Highlanders also added a run in the sixth inning on Andrew Cook's solo homer to right field to start the inning.
“When you give up eight runs in the first four innings, it's tough to recover from that,” stated Hudak following game two. “We have to pitch better and that's the bottom line if we're going to have a chance to finish the way we want to. We just didn't get it done in the second game.”
Winthrop managed only two more runs in the game when Matt Pierpont homered for the third time this season in the fourth inning and Crane hit his second of the day in the sixth. Both homers were solo shots and made it a 9-4 game.
Pierpont finished game two with a team-best two hits for the Eagles and was one of four players who posted one RBI each. Mack led Radford offensively with three hits in the series finale, while Turner had three RBI.
Winthrop will be back in action on Tuesday, Apr. 27 as it hosts Charlotte at 6 p.m.
