Box Score
LEXINGTON, VA – Robert Lake tossed the second complete game of his career on Saturday evening and lifted the Winthrop Eagles to an 8-2 win over the VMI Keydets at Gray-Minor Stadium in the second game of a three-game series.
The Eagles improve to 23-25 on the season and 11-12 in the conference, while the Keydets fall to 30-18 overall and 11-12 in conference play.
Lake allowed only two runs in the contest on eight hits, three walks and eight strikeouts. It is the second complete game thrown by a Winthrop pitcher this season as Matteo D'Angelo also threw a complete game on May 1 against Presbyterian. Jason Farley (4-3) took the loss surrendering four runs on nine hits, one walk and four strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work.
“Watching Robert pitch tonight reminded me of his performance against Liberty in the Big South Tournament last year where he was dominant,” said head coach Joe Hudak. “He was like that tonight. Robert was on and threw a great ballgame.”
Matt Thielepape gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead in the top of the first with his two RBI home run to left field. The homer was Thielepape's ninth of the season.
VMI was able to cut the deficit to 2-1 in its half of the first on an RBI double to right center field by Graham Sullivan, but Winthrop extended its lead to three runs at 4-1 in the fifth inning on a two-run homer to left center field by Eddie Rohan.
The home run by Rohan in the fifth inning was his team-high 13th of the season and also gives him 40 career homers as an Eagle. He is now the tenth player in Big South Conference history to post 40 home runs in a career and puts him only two behind Daniel Carte and Jacob Dempsey for second in school history for career homers.
Winthrop added another run in the eighth inning courtesy of a Tyler McBride RBI double off the center field wall that plated Matt Pierpont, who walked in the previous at-bat, from first base. The base hit made it a 5-1 game in favor of the Eagles.
The Keydets scored one run in the bottom of the eighth on a Graham Sullivan RBI sacrifice fly to right field which trimmed the Winthrop lead to 5-2. Sam Roberts came home on the sacrifice fly after he led off the inning with a walk.
The Eagles broke the game open in the top of the ninth by driving in three runs to go ahead of VMI 8-2. Thielepape brought in Tyler Cook with his one-out RBI double to begin the scoring and Patrick Gamblin followed by driving in Thielepape with his RBI double to left field. Gamblin later scored on Adam Gliebe's RBI single.
“We got some big hits from a lot of different guys,” Hudak added. “It's been two really good days for us.”
Cook led Winthrop offensively with a 4-for-5 performance, while Thielepape drove in three runs. Eight different VMI hitters posted one hit apiece in the contest and Sullivan had a team-best two RBI.
The Eagles and Keydets will conclude their three-game series on Sunday, May 16 at 5 p.m.
