ROCK HILL, SC -- The Winthrop baseball team prepares for a Big South Conference weekend series with intrastate rival Coastal Carolina at The Winthrop Ballpark.
Winthrop is looking to carry the momentum from Wednesday night's 13-4 win over Furman into the three-game weekend matchup against the Chanticleers. A big seven-run fourth inning highlighted by
Matt Lobacz's two-run blast over the right field fence put the Eagles in control and powered Winthrop to its most lopsided win since the 2011 season. The Eagles added to their lead with a run in the fifth, four in the sixth, and one more run in the seventh to provide reliever Jared Keels (1-2) with plenty of support as he locked up his first career win as a Winthrop Eagle.
Clay Altman and Lobacz both banged out three hits in the game while
Leighton Daniels and
Austen Barber each added a pair of hits with two RBI's.
Winthrop, riding back-to-back wins, heads into the weekend series with a 12-22 recording including 2-7 against Big South opponents. Coastal Carolina holds the first place spot in the South Division in the Big South with a 21-12 including 7-2 in the conference. The Chanticleers travel to Rock Hill carrying a six-game winning streak and winners of 10 out of their last 11 games. Coastal is coming off a 14-inning 2-1 win against The College of Charleston Wednesday night. Chanticleers pitchers combined to strike out a school record 19 batters in the game.
The Eagles are 47-69 all-time against Coastal Carolina including 24-25 in Rock Hill. Winthrop split a pair of games with the Chanticleers last season with a 6-5 win and a 1-4 loss in Conway, SC.
Ted Blackman and Jacob May lead the Chanticleer offense with .320 and .310 batting averages respectively while Will Remillard leads the team in the RBI category with 26. As a team, Coastal Carolina is hitting .266 while averaging five runs per game. The pitching for the Chanticleers has been one of the main assets of the team this season. Collectively, they maintain a 2.89 ERA while holding teams to a .246 batting average and striking out over eight batters per game. Ben Smith (3-1), Tyler Poole (4-1), and Tyler Herb (4-1) have led the starting rotations while Ryan Connolly (2-3) has anchored down the bullpen with seven saves this season.
The Eagles bats have made some noise in recent games as the Winthrop hitters have combined for 35 hits in the last three games and are averaging over six runs and nine hits per game over the last eight games. Along with the heightened offensive production, solid defense has kept the team in most games and given them the opportunity to win.
Leighton Daniels has been on a tear at the plate as he has raised his season batting average 74 points (to .257) over the last four games going 11 for 19 with five RBI's and five runs scored.
Chad Smith continues to drive in base runners as he has collected nine RBI's over the past six games.
Matt Pierpont (2-4),
Tyler Klitsch (1-6), Joey Strain (3-3), and Sam Kmiec (1-4) continue to provide the Eagles with strong starts on the mound while
Josh Strong (1.17 ERA),
Mitchell Knox (2.30 ERA), and
Eric Ruth (0.45 ERA) have provided solid relief out of the bullpen. Senior closer Ruth has a team leading six saves while Kmiec holds the fifth best strikeout-to-walk ratio in Division I NCAA with 11.67 strikeouts per walk.
Senior right-hander
Matt Pierpont (2-4) is expected to get the start on Friday night against Chanticleer lefty Ben Smith (3-1). Pitching matchups for Saturday and Sunday have yet to be determined.
The weekend series can be followed on the Winthrop Sports Network via
www.winthropeagles.com. The ticket window at The Winthrop Ballpark will open an hour before the start of each game.
