SPARTANBURG, SC – The Winthrop baseball team rallied for five runs in the ninth inning to earn a 10-6 win over Wofford on Wednesday night at Russell C. King Field.
The victory was the first mid-week win for the Eagles this season as they improve to 10-11. The loss dropped Wofford's record to 9-13.
Winthrop will try to even its record as it goes after a third straight win on Friday when the Eagles open a three-game Big South Conference series against High Point at the Winthrop Ballpark.
Winthrop trailed the Terriers 6-5 heading into the top of ninth against Wofford reliever Jordan Accetta (1-2).
Brandon Fite led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by
Hunter Lipscomb.
Mitch Spires then delivered an RBI single that scored Fite to tie the game.
Anthony Paulsen followed with another walk before
Babe Thomas singled to drive home Spires with what proved to be the winning run.
The Eagles added three more runs in the inning when
Matthew Mulkey doubled to left to score Paulsen and Thomas, and
Jake Sullivan followed with another double to drive in Mulkey.
Winthrop's 10 runs came on 13 hits while Wofford had six runs on eight hits. Winthrop was led at the plate by Thomas, who went 3 for 4 with a double and one RBI. Spires extended his hitting streak to 14 games as he went 2 for 5 with one RBI, and Mulkey was 2 for 4 with a double and two RBI.
Eagle sophomore
Thad Harris (1-5) earned his first win of the season as he pitched 3.1 innings in relief while allowing a run on no hits, and struck out four.
Wofford took a 1-0 lead in the first inning off Winthrop starting pitcher
Zach Peek, but the Eagles came back to tie the game in the second by getting three hits and a sacrifice fly by
Grant English that scored Spires who led off the inning with a single.
The Eagles took a brief 3-1 lead in the fifth inning on two unearned runs thanks to a two-out fielding error by the Terriers' shortstop. Wofford, however, answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning off Peek and
Carson Gregory to take a 5-3 lead.
The two teams traded runs in the sixth. Winthrop opened the inning with back-to-back walks to Thomas and English. Mulkey moved the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, and
Scout McFalls scored Thomas with a two-out single. Wofford got its run off Harris with back-to-back walks, a passed ball and two ground ball outs.
The Eagles scored another unearned run in the seventh to make it a 6-5 game when Spires walked, moved to third on a double by Paulsen and scored on a wild pitch.
For the latest information on Winthrop Baseball team, follow @WinthropBasebal on Twitter or go to
www.winthropeagles.com.
