Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC – Cam Walters' RBI infield single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Winthrop Eagles a 5-4 series opening win against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs on Friday evening at The Winthrop Ballpark.
The Eagles improve to 16-14 on the season and 7-3 in conference play, while the Bulldogs drop to 10-19 overall and 4-6 in the Big South.
Eric Ruth (4-0) earned the win on the mound tossing 1.1 innings of work in relief and gave up just one hit, no walks and three strikeouts. Ryan Dull (2-4) took the loss despite pitching a complete game for UNC Asheville. He surrendered five runs (two earned) on 11 hits, one walk and six strikeouts in 8.2 innings of work. The Winthrop pitching staff did not allow a walk for the second straight game.
“We're playing with some confidence right now,” said head coach Tom Riginos. “Our guys know we can come back in a game. Hopefully this is a little bit of an identity of the program right now in that these kids are not giving up and we have a chance to win.”
Eddie Rohan drove in the first Eagle run of the game in the bottom of the first on his RBI single to right field, scoring Tyler Cook. Cook led off the inning for Winthrop with a walk and moved to third base on a single by Chas Crane.
Crane made it a 2-0 game for the Eagles in the third inning with his two-out solo home run to right field. It was his first homer of the season.
The Bulldogs answered back to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning on RBI's from Nick Collazo and Ian Graham. Collazo drove in Grant Gajdosz on an RBI groundout for the first run of the inning, while Graham provided an RBI single to left field.
Winthrop regained the lead at 3-2 in the fifth on a two-out RBI single to right field by Cook bringing in TJ Olesczuk.
UNC Asheville plated a run each in the seventh and eighth innings to take a 4-3 lead over the Eagles. The run in the seventh inning came courtesy of a RBI single to center field by Catlin Carter, and in the eighth inning Danny Baatz provided a two-out RBI single to right field.
The rally by the Eagles in the ninth inning began when Brett Thomas posted a single to center field, which followed a strikeout by Adam Gliebe. Justin Hopper then came in to pinch-run for Thomas and remained on first after Olesczuk struck out swinging for the second out. Max Vogel came on and hit a double into the left center field gap moving Hopper to third base, but then went home after Gajdosz slipped in left field. During the play at home plate Vogel moved all the way around to third base, and scored the game-winning run on the infield single by Walters. It was the first career walk off hit Walters during his time at Winthrop.
“The hits by Thomas and Vogel were both huge for us,” Riginos said. “The kids battled tonight. It was a grind-out game.”
Rohan went 3-for-4 on the night to lead the Eagles offensively, while Vogel also provided two hits. Cook, Crane, Rohan and Walters each drove in a run for Winthrop. Carter had a team-high two hits for the Bulldogs, and was one of four players with an RBI.
The Eagles and UNC Asheville will resume their weekend series on Saturday, Apr. 9 with game two. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
