ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop Eagles' baseball squad defeated the Miami (OH) RedHawks 18-6 Friday afternoon at the Winthrop Ballpark in their highest scoring game of the season. The Eagles' bats got hot tying the season high of 13 hits with eight of the starting nine players getting at least one hit on the afternoon.
With the win, Winthrop advances to 8-6 on the year while Miami is now 5-6.
The Eagles fell behind early giving up a 1-0 lead to the RedHawks in the top of the 1
st inning. Right fielder Tyler Harris doubled to deep center field to send Miami's second baseman Steve Sada home.
Winthrop responded quickly knotting the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the 1
st when catcher
Roger Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly advancing left fielder
Tyler Asbill home for the score.
Winthrop exploded for five runs in the 2
nd inning, stretching its lead to 6-1. The Eagles relied on timely hitting with a couple of hits and were aided by a hit batsman, two bases on balls, a passed ball and a RedHawk error.
Miami cut the deficit to 6-2 when shortstop Chad Sedio homered to deep right field in the 4
th.
The RedHawks continued to strike with the deep ball when Ross Haffey hit a two run shot to center field cutting the Eagles lead to 6-4 in the 5
th.
The Eagles' first baseman
Mark Lowrie connected with a long ball of his own in the bottom of the 5
th, sending in two Winthrop base runners to seize a 10-4 lead.
Sedio hit his second home run of the afternoon in the top of the 6
th with a hard hit ball over the right center wall.
Winthrop designated hitter
Babe Thomas hit a sacrifice fly sending Gonzalez home for an 11-5 lead in the bottom of the 6
th.
The RedHawks continued to battle as they added another run in the 7
th off of a sacrifice fly from Gary Russo.
Asbill hit a sacrifice fly of his own in the bottom of the 7
th to extend the Eagles' lead to 12-6. Spires continued to pile on the runs for Winthrop with a double down the third base line advancing
Jake Sullivan home.
Anthony Paulsen then hit a two run RBI to center field while Thomas added another run with a single up the middle to score Paulsen.
The Eagles padded their lead with two more runs in the bottom of the 8
th.
Pitcher
Sam Kmiec picked up his third win on the season and is now 3-1. The left-hander went eight full innings striking out two with no walks.
Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with three RBIs. Lowrie was 2-2 with three RBIs and one home-run.
Winthrop will conclude their weekend series against Miami (OH) when they play the Redhawks in doubleheader Saturday, Mar. 12 with the first game scheduled for 1 pm at the Winthrop Ballpark.
For the latest information on the Winthrop Baseball team, follow @WinthropBasebal on Twitter or go to
www.winthropeagles.com.
