ROCK HILL, S.C. - Winthrop baseball (17-22, 9-6 Big South Conference) hosts UNC Asheville (10-26, 5-10 Big South Conference) in a three-game series Friday through Sunday. Winthrop is currently fourth in the Big South standings.
       

Winthrop (17-22, 9-4) vs. UNC Asheville (10-26, 5-10) – The Winthrop Ballpark
Date	Friday, April 20	Saturday, April 21	Saturday, April 22
First Pitch	6 p.m. ET	4 p.m. ET	1 p.m. ET
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Promo		Reusuable Winthrop      Shopping Bag Giveaway	Earth Day!
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PROBABLE ROTATION
Winthrop:
Friday Game 1 – RHP Nate Pawelczyk (4-4, 4.11 ERA)
Saturday Game 2 – RHP Zach Peek (3-4, 4.40 ERA)
Sunday Game 3 – RHP Daniel Willcutt (2-3, 3.49 ERA

UNC Asheville:
Friday Game 1: RHP Blake Brown (0-3, 6.38 ERA)
Saturday Game 2: LHP Greg Gasparro (1-5, 4.70 ERA)
Sunday Game 3: TBA

LAST MEETING/A LOOK AT THE BULLDOGS
Winthrop won the 2017 series with the Bulldogs in Asheville, taking the series opener 8-0, dropping game two 3-4 and capturing the rubber game 1-0.
 
TEAM SNAPSHOT
Winthrop is hitting .261 (340-for-1304) as a team with a .343 on base percentage. The Eagles have recorded 46 errors as a squad, retaining a .967 fielding percentage overall.

Winthrop opened conference play on a 6-0 streak and suffered its first setback on the road at High Point. In its first six conference games, Winthrop recorded double-digit hits in five of six (and posted nine in the sixth game), winning all six games. In the series at High Point, the Eagles belted just a combined five hits in the first two games, both losses, but bounced back for 11 hits and 11 runs and a victory in game three. Against Gardner-Webb, the Eagles couldn't hang on to a 6-3 lead when a rain-halted game two resumed the next day, falling 7-6, but bounced back, with 12 hits in a 10-5 victory in game three. In a weather-altered series with Radford, the Eagles took the opener 6-3 but fell in both games of a doubleheader on Saturday.

Winthrop is 12-4 when recording double-digit hits and 5-18 when failing to record 10 or more hits.

The Winthrop pitching staff is third the Big South in conference games with an ERA of 4.58. Offensively, the team is fifth in the conference in league games with a .284 batting average.

The Eagles have fared much better at home at this season, boasting a 13-7 record at The Winthrop Ballpark, but a 4-15 record in road games.
 
PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS
-Senior Mitch Spires leads the Eagles with 51 hits (fourth in the Big South), 10 of which are doubles, which is tied for fifth in the Big South Conference. Spires also leads Winthrop with 15 multiple-hit games, including a team-high five games with three hits. Spires owns a team-high .323 batting average. Spires owns an 11-game streak for reaching base.

-Junior infielder Grant English had a breakout series against Longwood, including a career-high five hits and five RBI in the series finale, and is hitting .388 (19-for-49) in conference play. English is tied for second on the squad in hits (33).
 
-Junior RHP Nate Pawelczyk is allowing an opposing batting average of just .218, sixth in the Big South Conference. Pawelczyk is third in the league in innings pitched (57.0) and fourth in strikeouts (54). Of the 45 hits the Big South Preseason Pitcher of the Year has given up so far this season, none have been triples and only two have been a home run.
 
-Sophomore RHP Zach Peek leads the team and the Big South Conference in strikeouts with 70 on the season, and was the first pitcher in the league to surpass the 50 mark. Of the 70 Ks, 22 are of the looking variety, good for third in the conference. With nine strikeouts at ETSU, he fell just one short of having three-straight games with double-digit strikeouts (10 vs. Maryland Eastern Shore, 12 vs. Kent State.) Peek was named Big South Starting Pitcher of the Week on Mar. 26 after hurling a complete game shutout, the first of his career and the only one in the league so far this season, against Longwood. Peek is second in the league in innings pitched (57.1) and ninth in opposing batting average (.240).

-The Eagles have been without junior outfielder Matthew Mulkey since game one against Longwood on Fri., Mar. 23. Mulkey continues to lead the Eagles in slugging percentage (.595), on-base percentage (.389), home runs (5) and is second on the squad in RBI (22).
 
UP NEXT
The Eagles will host Wofford College on Tues., Apr. 24 at 6 p.m. in nonconference play then enjoy a bye weekend from games during Winthrop's final exams. The Eagles return to conference action on the road at Charleston Southern in a three-game series, Fri.-Sun., May 4-6.