Box Score Box Score
N. CHARLESTON, SC – Tyler Klitsch pitched the second complete game of his career on Sunday afternoon as the Winthrop Eagles defeated the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 2-1 in the finale of a three-game series at CSU Ballpark.
The Eagles improve to 14-32 on the season and 7-11 in conference play, while the Buccaneers drop to 18-29 overall and 9-9 in the conference.
Klitsch (3-6) gave up just one unearned run in the contest on four hits, no walks and four strikeouts. His other complete game this season came in Winthrop's 5-2 victory over Rider on Mar. 18 in which he surrendered two unearned runs on six hits, two walks and four strikeouts. Charlie McCready (3-4) took the loss allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits, no walks and seven strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fifth when the Eagles struck for two runs to take a 2-0 lead over Charleston Southern.
Tyler Donovan drove in
Justin Hopper for the first run of the inning on his RBI sacrifice bunt to first base. Hopper led off the fifth for Winthrop with an infield single and went to third on a single by
Jason Driver and Leighton Daniel's sacrifice bunt. Driver scored the Eagles second run after he came home on a passed ball by Buccaneer catcher Drew Woodall.
Klitsch retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced in the contest, allowing just a double to Robbie Streett in the third and Alex Tomasovich reaching on an error in the fourth. After a leadoff single by Walt Quattlebaum in the bottom of the fifth, Klitsch allowed two more hits in the sixth and ninth innings while at one point retiring eight batters in a row.
Charleston Southern cut its deficit to 2-1 in the top of the ninth on Jaren Sustar's RBI groundout to shortstop, which scored Bobby Ison from third. Ison led off the ninth for the Buccaneers with a double to right field, the team's only extra base hit of the game, and advanced to third on a passed ball. After the RBI groundout by Sustar, Klitsch finished the game by getting Tomasovich and John Faircloth to each ground out.
Six different Winthrop hitters collected one hit each in the contest, while Donovan had one RBI. Ison had a team-high two hits for Charleston Southern, and Sustar drove in the only run.
The Eagles will be back in action on Tuesday, May 8 at 6 p.m. as they travel to Greenville, SC to face the Furman Paladins.
