ROCK HILL, SC - In what was surely Winthrop's most tightly contested game of the year, the Eagles pulled out an extra inning thriller on Friday night, beating Canisius 6-5 on a walk-off single by Andrew Jenner to improve the Eagles to 4-0 on the young season. Winthrop trailed 5-0 entering the bottom of the eighth inning - and would then score two in the eighth, three in the ninth to tie the game, and one in the eleventh to claim the Friday victory. Canisius drops to 1-5 with the series opening loss. 

Two Canisius runs in the fourth and three more in the top in the seventh had the game heavily in the Golden Griffins' favor heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. Canisius starter Kyle Warner had held in the Eagles in check to that point, throwing seven shutout innings. But the Eagles got going against the Canisius bullpen in the eighth. Ethan Fewell came to the plate with runners on first and third with one out and hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Tyler Baker from third base to get Winthrop on the board. Following Fewell, Cale Gibson singled to right field, sending Spencer Yankle from first to third, where he would eventually score on an Andrew Jenner RBI single to left field to make it 5-2 Canisius. 

In the ninth, the Eagles would complete the comeback by scoring three runs to tie the game. With one out, Tyler Baker grounded a slow roller to the left of the mound that was misfired to first base by the Canisius reliever, sending Baker to second on the throwing error. Baker would then move to third on a passed ball and score on a wild pitch, cutting the deficit to 5-3. Scout McFalls and Ethan Fewell drew walks around a lineout, and Winthrop had runners on first and second with two outs. Cale Gibson then came through in the clutch, doubling into the left center field gap to score McFalls from second and pinch runner Luke Hannum all the way from first base to tie the ballgame. 

After a scoreless tenth, the Eagles came to the plate in the bottom of the eleventh inning and scored the winning run. With one out, Spencer Yankle singled to left field, and then advanced to second on a Luke Hannum walk. After another Canisius pitching change, Cale Gibson also walked to load the bases with one out. The next man up was Andrew Jenner, who had the bases loaded and a drawn-in infield in front of him. The freshman lined a game-winning single into center field, sending Spencer Yankle home and the rest of the Eagle dugout out to mob Jenner on the infield dirt. 

While the late offense was the story on Friday, Eagle pitching held steady once again and kept Winthrop in the game. Thad Harris started the game for the Eagles and turned in another solid performance, allowing only one earned run on 6 hits over 6.1 innings of work. The redshirt senior exited to a 5-0 deficit, but four runs were unearned as there were four Winthrop errors committed during the lefty's outing. 

First out of the bullpen was freshman right-hander Dalton Mims, who logged 1.1 impressive innings in his Winthrop debut, allowing one hit and striking out two in relief of Thad Harris. Fellow freshman Aaron White then came on with two outs in the eighth inning and the left-hander got his only hitter via strikeout, his first out recorded as an Eagle. 

Willie Lumpkin took it the rest of the way for Winthrop, as the freshman right-hander logged three dazzling innings on Friday, allowing only one hit and striking out two. Lumpkin was the winning pitcher for Winthrop on Friday, earning his first career win to go to 1-0 on the season. 

UP NEXT: The Eagles turn to games two and three of the series Saturday afternoon, as the Eagles and Golden Griffins square off for a doubleheader at the Winthrop Ballpark. Game one, a nine inning contest, will begin at 1 p.m. Game two, a seven inning contest, will begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one. 

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