ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball team swept a doubleheader over High Point to extend its winning streak to five straight with 12-5 and 4-0 victories on Saturday at The Winthrop Ballpark.
The two wins elevates Winthrop's season record above the .500 level for the first time since the third week of the season as the Eagles improve to 12-11 overall and 5-1 in the Big South Conference. HPU is now 10-11 and 1-4.
Junior shortstop Mitch Spires led Winthrop with a 4 for 9 day and extended his hitting streak to 17 games.
Game One—Winthrop 12, High Point 5
Winthrop scored 12 runs and collected 13 hits in route to the win. Winthrop sophomore right-hander Nate Pawelczyk (3-1) earned the win as he started the game and went 5.2 innings while allowing three runs on nine hits. Eagle sophomore Thad Harris earned his first collegiate save. Drew Daczkowski (2-2) suffered the loss as he threw 4.1, allowed nine runs (five earned) on seven hits and struck out four Eagles.
Spires went 3 for 5 with three singles and three RBI. Senior Babe Thomas went 1 for 3 with a three-run home run and sophomore Matthew Mulkey went 1 for 4 with a home run and two RBI.
Winthrop got on the board first in the bottom of the fourth thanks to back-to-back errors that resulted in two runs followed by Mulkey's two-run homer to left. Winthrop added five more runs in the bottom of the fifth when Thomas hit a three-run blast to left. Winthrop added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth and one more in the eighth.
The Panthers were held scoreless until the top of the sixth when pinch hit Cody Oerther hit a two-run double drove home the first of three runs in the inning. HPU scored two more in the top of the ninth.
Game Two--Winthrop 4, High Point 0
Freshman right-hander Colton Rendon (3-2) pitched seven scoreless innings to earn the win while Trevor Holloway (1-3) suffered the loss for HPU as he allowed two runs on five hits in seven innings and struck out five.
Spires, Hunter Lipscomb and Anthony Paulsen combined for the four RBI as each had one hit.
Winthrop scored once in the bottom of the sixth when it had three consecutive singles by freshman Scout McFalls, sophomore Brandon Fite, and senior Anthony Paulsen.
The Eagles added three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when sophomore Jake Sullivan singled, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by McFalls, and scored on a single by Spires. Lipscomb then drove home two runs with a single to close out the scoring.
