ASHEVILLE, NC–Winthrop's baseball team opened Big South Conference play with an 8-0 win over UNC Asheville on Friday afternoon at Greenwood Field behind senior Reece Green's eight innings of shutout pitching and a four-hit day at the plate by Mitch Spires.
 
Winthrop improves its record to 8-10 on the season while Asheville is now even at 7-9.  The second contest of the three-game series will start at 3 p.m. on Saturday with the finale set for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
 
Green improved his record to 2-1 and combined with Daniel Willcutt to record Winthrop's first shutout of the season. Bulldog starter Brandon Harris lost for the first time and falls to 2-1.
 
Spires, a junior shortstop, went 4 for 5 on the afternoon to lead the Winthrop's 13-hit attack.  Babe Thomas also blasted his third home run of the season, a two-run shot in the seventh inning, and the Eagles also got two hits from Brandon Fite, Hunter Lipscomb, Grant English, and Jake Sullivan.
 
The Eagles scored two runs in the first when Fite drew a one-out walk off Harris and scored on a triple down the right field line by Anthony Paulsen.  Paulsen then scored on an infield groundout by Hunter Lipscomb.
 
Winthrop tacked on two more runs in the fifth as the Eagles put together three singles by Sullivan, Spires and Lipscomb and took advantage of a throwing error by the Bulldogs' catcher.
 
Asheville threatened in the bottom of the sixth as the Bulldogs loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk, but Green was able to escape unscathed. 
 
Winthrop upped the lead to 7-0 with three runs in the seventh when Spires led off the inning with his third hit of the game, moved to second on a passed ball by Austin Fahr and scored on a double to left field by Fite.  Following another pitching change by the Bulldogs, Thomas greeted reliever Blake Brown with an opposite field homer to right.
 
Winthrop added another run in the eighth inning as the Eagles loaded the bases and scored on run on an infield single by Lipscomb that ricocheted off pitcher Jesse Juday and allowed Spires to score to make it an 8-0 game.