Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 BOILING SPRINGS, NC--    The Winthrop baseball team split its Big South Conference twinbill  with Gardner-Webb on Saturday, winning the opener 7-3 before falling in the nightcap 8-0 as the Eagles took two out of three games in the conference opening series.
 
Winthrop improves to 8-11 overall and 2-1 in the league while Gardner-Webb drops to 7-12 and 1-2.  The two teams were scheduled to play a single game on Sunday, but due to the forecast they scheduled the Saturday doubleheader.
 
Game 1
In the opener, Winthrop fell behind 3-0 after four innings, but plated five runs in the fifth inning and added single runs in both the eighth and ninth frames.
 
Sophomore right-hander Joey Strain got the win as he improved to 3-2 by going 7.1 innings while allowing three runs on eight hits.  Matt Crohan came on to pitch an inning and a third before Jason Driver was brought in to face one Bulldog hitter and got credit for his second save.  GWU starter Andrew Barnett took the loss, his first of the season after getting three wins. 
 
Winthrop got to GWU starter Andrew Barnett for all five runs in the fifth inning as the Eagles collected four hits and two advantage of two Bulldog errors as they played small ball. Mark Lowrie opened the inning with a double to the gap in left center, advanced to third when John Menken's grounder to shortstop was mishandled and then scored when Chad Smith laid down a sacrifice bunt and was safe at first on a throwing error.  Zac Goodno followed with an infield single on another bunt which allowed Menken to score.  Following a walk to Leighton Daniels, TJ Olesczuk singled up the middle to score two more runs.  Babe Thomas drove home the final run of the inning with another two-out single up the middle.
 
The Eagles collected 11 hits led by Thomas with three.  Daniels and Kyle Edwards had two hits each.  The Bulldogs had nine hits and were led by Matt Simmons and Henry Rundio with two hits each.
 
Game 2
The Eagles were blanked for the fifth time this season in the second game as GWU lefty Erik Heiligenstadt hurled a complete game three-hitter while striking out 10 and not giving up a walk.
 
The Bulldogs erupted for all eight of their runs in the fourth inning as they touched up Winthrop starter Josh Strong for six runs on four hits before getting their final two runs off Eagle reliever Brock Goodling.  The big hit in the inning was a two-run homer to left field by Brantley Smith that gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead.  Alex Newman had a two-RBI single to increase the margin to 5-0.
 
Strong's record dropped to 0-4 with the loss.
 
Winthrop will return to action next Tuesday when the Eagles entertain North Carolina A&T beginning at 6 p.m. at The Winthrop Ballpark.