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ROCK HILL, SC- The Winthrop baseball team split the double header of its weekend conference series with UNC Asheville, winning the first game 4-3 before falling 7-6. The Eagles are now 14-15 on the year and 6-3 in the conference while the Bulldogs move to 9-18 and 3-6 in conference play.
Game 1- After falling behind 2-0 in the fourth inning, Winthrop put together three runs in the fourth inning followed by a single run in the fifth inning.
Joey Strain earned his fourth win of the season, giving up two runs on eight hits as Asheville's Joe Zayatz fell to 1-4 giving up all four runs on six hits.
The Eagles led off the fourth inning with singles by
Chad Smith and
TJ Olesczuk, followed by a sacrifice bunt by
John Menken that advanced the runners.
Babe Thomas loaded the bases after a walk, and Smith came home on an RBI single from
Brad Kaczka.
Clay Altman stepped up and hit a single and was thrown out trying to reach second but Olesczuk and Thomas were able to score.
Michael Patrick made it 4-2 after scoring on an RBI single from Smith in the fifth inning.
Asheville cut the lead in half in the eighth inning with Lucas Owen's second run of the day but
Josh Strong came in to relieve and got his third save of the year.
Game 2- The Eagles had costly errors and gave up five runs in the ninth inning after cruising with a 6-1 lead for four innings.
Matt Crohan came in to relieve
Josh Strong who had pitched eight strong innings, and gave six runs on three hits to take the loss for the Eagles. Asheville's Scott Robinson earned the win, pitching the last two innings and holding the Eagles to no runs and no hits.
The Eagles led first for the first time this weekend as
Babe Thomas scored on an RBI double by
Clay Altman after reaching on fielder's choice. The Bulldogs answered right back in the third inning when Sam Turner scored on a sacrifice groundout by Hunter Bryant.
Patrick, Olesczuk and Menken all crossed the plate in the fourth inning to bring the score to 5-1.
Leighton Daniels tacked on one final run as he slammed his second home run of the year.
The Eagles seemed to have gotten the victory as the Bulldogs were down 6-4 with two outs in the ninth inning but Asheville scored the tying run on a 2 RBI single from Joe Tietjen. Pete Guy scored the game winner as Lucas Owens reached on a fielding error.
Winthrop's next game will be at Davidson on Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m.
