Box Score Box Score
CULLOWHEE, NC – The Winthrop baseball team recorded a season-high 20 hits on Tuesday evening as it defeated the Western Carolina Catamounts 11-5 at Hennon Stadium in the final midweek game of the season.
The Eagles improve to 16-33 on the season, while the Catamounts fall to 30-21 overall.
Tyler Klitsch (4-6) earned the win tossing 2.2 innings and gave up two runs on two hits, one walk and three strikeouts. Adam Curtis (5-2) suffered the loss allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits, no walks and two strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work.
Winthrop's offense struck for two runs on four consecutive singles in the top of the first to take 2-0 lead over Western Carolina.
Matt Lobacz and
Chas Crane collected an RBI each in the inning, while
Leighton Daniels and
TJ Olesczuk had a hit each. The Eagles extended their lead to 3-0 in the third inning on Crane's second RBI of the contest.
The Catamounts cut their deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the third on Tyler White's RBI double and an RBI groundout by Ross Heffley, but Winthrop answered back with two runs of its own in the top of the fourth to go ahead 5-2 with back-to-back RBI singles by Daniels and
Drew Hardee.
The Eagles added one run each in the fifth and sixth innings to make it 7-2 on
Jason Driver's RBI double in the fifth and an RBI single by Lobacz in the sixth.
Western Carolina added a run in the bottom of the sixth on Jacob Hoyle's leadoff home run to left center field, but Winthrop responded with four runs in the top of the eighth. Lobacz, Driver and
Justin Hopper all drove in one run each during the inning. The Eagles went ahead 11-3 after the four-run inning.
The Catamounts added two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a two-run homer to left field by Dale Urquhart Jr. It became an 11-5 contest after the home run.
The 20 hits by Winthrop are the most in a game under head coach
Tom Riginos, and highest since tallying 22 against Presbyterian College in Rock Hill on May 1, 2010.
Olesczuk tied his career-high of four hits and led the Eagles offensively in the contest, while Lobacz drove in a team-high three RBI. Luke Gragg had two hits for Western Carolina, while Urquhart Jr. drove in two runs.
Winthrop will be back in action on Thursday, May 17 at 6 p.m. against the High Point Panthers in the first game of a three-game Big South Conference series to wrap up the regular season.
