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ROCK HILL, SC- The Winthrop baseball team rallied and scored six unanswered runs to defeat USC Upstate 6-2 on Wednesday night.

The Eagles improve to 17-8 on the season while the Spartans fall to 8-17.

Eagles skipper Tom Riginos was very proud of the maturity his team showed in the game. "Jackson really had our number the first few innings", says Riginos. "But there was no panic in our dugout and I think that's a confidence our team has this year."

With the win, Zach Sightler moved to 4-1 this year, coming in as relief and holding the Spartans to just one hit in one inning. Starter Riley Arnone, Travis Shelley and Joey Strain combined to allow one run on 13 hits.
Upstate took a 1-0 lead in the top the second inning as Charlie Carpenter scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Sam Kysor.  

Jace Whitley led off the bottom of the fifth inning singling and stealing second. Brad Kaczka then walked before Chad Smith reached on fielder's choice and Whitley was ruled safe at third to load the bases. Kyle Edwards hit an infield single to bring home Whitley before Kaczka scored on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Asbill.

The Spartans looked dangerous in the eighth inning, loading the bases with two outs but Shelley struck out Stephen Dowling to retire the side.

The Eagles added four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Mark Lowrie kicked off the inning singling through the left side and advanced to second on a passed ball. Roger Gonzalez knocked home Lowrie on a single up the middle and Gonzalez moved to second on a groundout by Whitley. Back to back singles by Kaczka and Edwards scored Gonzalez and got Kaczka to third with both runners coming home on a double by Asbill.

Upstate got one run back in the ninth inning as Daniel Fickas scored from second on a single up the middle by Carpenter.

Winthrop travels to Coastal Carolina for its first road conference series this weekend.  Game times are 6:00 p.m. on Friday, 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.