Box Score
CONWAY, SC – The Winthrop baseball team fell to the fourth-ranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 11-7 on Sunday afternoon at Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field.
The Eagles record drops to 21-24 overall and 9-11 in conference play, while the Chanticleers improve to 41-6 on the season and 19-0 in the conference.
Matteo D'Angelo (6-4) took the loss throwing 6.0 innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits, two walks and four strikeouts. Cody Wheeler (9-0) hurled 6.0 innings and gave up three runs on seven hits, three walks and 10 strikeouts to pick up the win. Austin Fleet (6) earned the save pitching one-third of an inning and struck out one batter.
“It was a game where we were in it for awhile,” said head coach Joe Hudak. “We had some opportunities early against Wheeler, but we weren't able to get big hits when we needed them. We battled back in the end, but just didn't have enough.”
Coastal Carolina jumped out to a 1-0 lead over Winthrop in the bottom of the second on Taylor Motter's RBI sacrifice fly to center field that scored Adam Rice, who began the inning with a walk.
The Eagles tied the game at 1-1 in their half of the third inning when Eddie Rohan drove in Patrick Gamblin with his RBI sacrifice fly to center field, but the Chanticleers re-gained the lead at 3-1 in the bottom of the third on a two-run homer to left field by Jose Iglesias.
Winthrop made it a 3-3 game in the top of the fourth after Tyler McBride singled home Chas Crane with one out and Tyler Cook followed with an RBI bunt single to first base.
Iglesias put Coastal Carolina back on top 4-3 in the fifth inning with his second long ball of the game, a solo shot, while the Chanticleers added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase their lead to 6-3. Taylor Motter began the sixth with a leadoff home run to left field and Steve Davis later scored on a wild pitch by D'Angelo.
Coastal Carolina broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the seventh to go ahead 11-3. Rice, Motter, Davis, Chance Gilmore and Rico Noel all posted an RBI each in the seventh inning.
Crane cut the Eagles deficit to 11-4 in the top of the eighth with his solo home run to right field for his 11th home run of the season. The 11 homers by Crane tie Eddie Rohan for first on the team in that category.
Winthrop attempted to rally in the top of the ninth, but only managed to scored three runs and make it an 11-7 game. Cook started the scoring with his RBI single to right field, while Sean Sullivan added an RBI single and Adam Gliebe drew a bases load walk against reliever Matt Laney.
Four different Eagle batters posted two hits on the afternoon and Cook had a team-high two RBI. Motter and Davis led the Chanticleers with three hits each, while Iglesias and Motter had three RBI each.
Winthrop and Coastal Carolina will wrap up their three-game series on Monday, May 10 at 1 p.m.
