ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop Baseball team lost the series opener against Canisius on Friday as the Golden Griffins scored nine runs in the second and third innings and held on for a 9-5 victory at The Winthrop Ballpark.

Due to Sunday's forecast calling for a chance of snow or rain, the two teams will meet on Saturday in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m

Winthrop (5-8) was led at the plate by sophomore Grant English, who went 3 for 4 with one RBI, junior Wesley Williams had a two-RBI double, and junior Mitch Spires extended his hitting streak to five games as he went 2 for 4 with one double and a single.

Eagle southpaw Thad Harris (0-3) suffered the loss as he went two innings, allowed five runs on four hits and walked three. Canisius' Andrew Sipowicz (1-0) earned the win as he pitched five innings, allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight.

Winthrop took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Spires hit a double and scored on a single by senior Babe Thomas.

Canisius got the board in the top of the second with three runs with the help of two hit batters, an error,  a walk, and two singles. The Golden Griffins extended the lead to 9-1 as they batted around in the third inning, scoring six runs on five singles and a fielding error. .

The Eagles cut the deficit to five runs with a three-run fourth inning. Following back-to-back singles, Williams drove home two runs with a double.  Williams advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the third run of the inning on a groundout. Winthrop added one more in the eighth on three hits. Spires scored Winthrop's final run on a two-out single by English.

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