ROCK HILL, SC - Kent State scored the first five runs of Friday contest at the Winthrop Ballpark and the Eagles' comeback effort wasn't enough, as Winthrop suffered its first defeat of 2020 to fall to 8-1 on the year with a 5-2 loss to the Golden Flashes. 

Thad Harris got the start for the Eagles on Friday and looked steadily better as his outing progressed. The redshirt senior left-hander tossed six innings for Winthrop, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits, striking out three while walking two and hitting three batters. Harris yielded a run in each of the first three innings of the contest, before putting up back to back scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth before allowing a pair of runs in the sixth, one of which was unearned. 

Dalton Skinner came out of the bullpen and tossed three shutout innings, allowing only one hit while striking out one batter. Skinner has now logged 7.1 innings without an earned run to begin his Winthrop career. 

Winthrop outhit Kent State 11-6 in Friday's game, but the Eagles failed to convert a hit with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. The Eagles' two runs Friday came courtesy of a Cale Gibson two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning, the first homer of the season for Gibson. 

UP NEXT: The Eagles will hand the ball to Daniel Blair for the second game of the series, set to begin at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Winthrop Ballpark. 

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