Rock Hill, S.C. – Coming off winning two of three games vs. High Point in the regular-season finale this past weekend, Winthrop enters this week's Big South Baseball Championship in High Point, North Carolina seeded fifth. The Eagles will make their first appearance in the tournament since 2023 and will play on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Truist Point, home of the High Point Rockers vs. fourth-seeded Radford on ESPN+.
 

Game Day Information
Winthrop (29-27, 13-11 Big South) vs. Radford (27-26, 13-11 Big South)	High Point, N.C. | Truist Point
Wednesday, May 21 | 11:00 a.m.	ESPN+ | Live Stats | Tickets | Bracket
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EAGLES AT THE BIG SOUTH TOURNAMENT

• Winthrop is seeded fifth after finishing the season with a 29-27 (13-11 Big South) record, earning a trip to the tournament for the first time since 2023
• Eagles hold an all-time record of 59-53 in the conference tournament
• The 59 wins are 33 more than any other current member of the Big South
• Winthrop is tied for 2nd most conference titles (4) and 3rd in championship game appearances (10)
• This Big South Conference Tournament has been held in the state of North Carolina eight times (Did not qualify for the 2012 tournament in High Point)
• Winthrop has played in six of the seven tournaments held in NC and hold a record of 16-11 with two tournament titles (1985, 1987) and two runner-up finishes (2009, 2019)
• In Winthrop's last trip to the conference tournament in 2023, the then-third-seeded Eagles fell to second-seeded USC Upstate in Game 2 of the first day of the tournament by a final score of 10-4 on May 25
• The next day on May 26 in the longest game in Big South Tournament history, Winthrop defeated fourth-seeded Gardner-Webb in the first elimination game by a final score of 10-9 in 15 innings on Nicholas Badillo's walk-off single
• The Eagles then lost to USC Upstate in the second elimination game that day by a final score of 8-3, concluding their 2023 season at 28-28 overall

2025 BIG SOUTH ALL-CONFERENCE HONOREES-WINTHROP

• The Winthrop baseball program had six players named to the 2025 Big South all-conference teams, the league announced Tuesday morning. Gabe Natividad was named to the first team; Josh Skowronski, Harrison Wilson and Owen Sarna were named to the second team while Skowronski was also named to the all-freshman team and Shane Keup was named to the all-academic team
• Natividad was named first team after a regular-season in which he played and started in all 56 games, recording 66 runs, 70 hits, 41 RBI's and 12 doubles, good for a batting average of .341. Natividad currently leads the team in hits, batting average and runs. He is also currently tied for 4th in the Big South in triples per game with .05, 4th in the Big South in runs per game with 1.18, tied for 7th in the Big South in hits per game with 1.25 and 9th in the Big South in on-base percentage with .476. Natividad most notably leads the nation in hit by pitch with 33
• Skowronski was named second team after a regular-season in which he played 54 games, starting in 40 of them. He currently has 45 runs, 50 hits, 13 home runs and 48 RBI's, good for a batting average of .313. Skowronski leads the team in home runs. He won Big South Freshman of the Week honors on Apr. 28 and hit an inside the park home run at Radford on May 11, which was the first inside the park home run for the Eagles this season. He is tied for 8th in the Big South in home runs and is solely 8th in the conference in slugging percentage with .625. Skowronski was also named to the all-freshman team
• Sarna was also named second team after a regular-season in which he finished with a record of 3-3. He appeared in 17 contests, starting nine of them, pitching 57.0 innings. He has struck out 52 batters. Sarna won Big South Co-Starting Pitcher of the Week honors on Feb. 18 and is currently 9th in the Big South in strikeouts per game with 8.21
• Wilson was Winthrop's third and final selection to the second team this year. As a pitcher, Wilson is currently 5-1 thus far, starting eight games out of 15 appearances. He pitched in 54.1 innings in regular-season competition, striking out 49 batters. Offensively, Wilson is batting .263 and played in 27 games, starting 17 of them with 10 hits. He was the winning pitcher as Winthrop recorded their first win over a ranked opponent since 2015 by downing then #16 Oklahoma State in the second game of a two-game series with the Cowboys on the road 9-3 on Mar. 5. Wilson picked up Big South Co-Starting Pitcher of the Week honors on Apr. 7 and was named to the 2025 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Watch List by the College Baseball Foundation on Apr. 15
• Keup was named to the all-academic team as he made 21 appearances (two starts) for the Eagles in the regular-season, and is currently 3-3 with a 5.97 earned run average in 37.2 innings pitched. He has struck out 34 batters, recorded two saves and a combined shutout, while holding opposing batters to a .261 batting average. In Big South games, Keup had 15 strikeouts in 14.2 innings, and allowed a .255 hitting clip in eight appearances

A LOOK AT RADFORD

• The two schools will meet for the 94th time with Winthrop leading the series, 68-55
• During the regular-season in 2025, the Highlanders defeated Winthrop in all three meetings in Radford two weeks ago from May 9-11.
• The Eagles and the Highlanders met for the first time in a doubleheader on Mar. 28, 1985 in Rock Hill, with Winthrop winning 11-1 and 11-2 on the way to winning the first nine meetings from 1985-88
• Radford won 15 of the next 24 meetings from 1989-95 but Winthrop answered with a big 32-12 run from 1996-2009, including winning 11 straight from 2000-2004
• Radford won 24 of the next 32 meetings from 2010 to 2021 but it has been all Winthrop since then, with the Eagles winning seven of the last 11
• In their most recent and final regular-season series of the year, the Highlanders were swept at Longwood this past weekend by scores of 4-5, 8-15 and 2-4
• Winthrop is 4-4 all-time vs. Radford at the Big South Tournament

LAST TIME OUT

• Winthrop wrapped up the regular-season over the weekend by taking the final Big South series from archrival High Point by scores of 11-13, 15-12 and 15-5 in seven innings
• Eagles finished the regular-season 29-27 overall and 13-11 in Big South games
• Eagles finished 22-11 at home this season
• This was the first series win over High Point since 2019

A LOOK BACK AT 2024 

• The Eagles finished the 2024 season with a 19-29-1 (8-15 Big South) record
• Jaylen Hernandez and Owen Sarna were both named to the Big South All-Freshman Team
• The Sacramento Athletics in the 13th round selected Riley Huge in the MLB Draft
• Overall, Huge marks the 37th Eagle in history to be selected in the MLB Draft
• This was the second straight year that a Winthrop baseball player was drafted
• Winthrop also earned the Team Academic Excellence Award from the ABCA for the fifth consecutive year
• Winthrop finished last season having recorded the most strikeouts in nine inning games in a single season in program history (9.60 over 413.1 IP)
• Winthrop also finished last season sixth in a single season in program history with 440 strikeouts
• Against Davidson on Apr. 16, 2024, Winthrop set a new team single-game record for most times hit by pitch with seven
• In a minimum of 500 chances, Nate Chronis is currently tied for fourth in school history with a .989 fielding percentage
• He also finished last season tied for fifth in school history in most times hit by pitch in a single season with 12
• Chronis led the team in putouts last season with 275 and total chances with 306
• He was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. Chronis started in 33 of 44 games played, batting in a season-high two runs vs. Radford on May 5
• Joey Hylinski led the team in lowest ERA last season with 2.35

WINTHROP AT A GLANCE IN 2025

• Winthrop enters 2025 predicted to finish sixth in the Big South Conference
• In his first season at the helm of the program is Mike McGuire
• McGuire is the fourth head coach in program history
• His career record is 506-383-1 in 16 years as a head coach
• McGuire returns to the Winthrop baseball program after serving as head coach at USC Upstate the last five seasons. This marks McGuire's third stint with the Eagle program as he spent 12 seasons as an assistant coach from 1997-2002 and again in 2006-11
• The Eagles also welcome back 13 players, 11 of them starters and 27 newcomers, all either freshman or transfers
• The program has a record of 1,410-1,027-7
• Winthrop is 892-408-4 all-time at home
• Winthrop is 496-377 all-time in conference play, the winningest record in conference history
• Winthrop is 28-17 all-time in season openers
• Winthrop is 2^nd in the nation in hit by pitches with 148 as of Tuesday, May 20
• Gabe Natividad and Hernandez are 1^st and 12^th in the nation in hit by pitch with 33 and 25, respectively as of Tuesday, May 20
• Following a 10-3 win over UNC Asheville, Winthrop had been hit by pitch up to that point in the season with 92
• This set a new school single-season team school record
• Last year's team was hit by pitch 86 times
• Winthrop is 15^th in the nation in doubles with 121 as of Tuesday, May 20
• Winthrop is 6^th in the nation in runs with 497 as of Tuesday, May 20
• Winthrop is 21^st in the nation in hits with 575 as of Tuesday, May 20
• Koby Kropf and Owen Sarna were voted to the Big South Conference Preseason All-Conference Team
• Kropf was selected as part of D1Baseball's Top 100 Outfielders entering the 2025 season, slotting Kropf as the 26-best in the country
• Kropf started all 60 games for conference rival USC Upstate in 2024, and became just the third player in Big South history with 20 doubles (21) and 20 home runs (20) in a season. He hit .352 overall with 20 homers, 67 runs batted in, a .704 slugging clip, 81 hits and 56 runs scored. Kropf also drew 29 walks and five hit-by-pitch and finished with a .431 on-base percentage. Kropf recorded a career-high five hits versus Presbyterian on April 27, collected a career-high five RBI versus Queens on April 16, and recorded 25 multi-hit and 19 multi-RBI games a season ago
• In Big South contests, Kropf batted .363 with eight home runs, 28 RBI, a .714 slugging average and .463 on-base clip
• Last season at USC Upstate, he earned Second-Team All-Big South honors and was a back-to-back Player of the Week honoree (April 22 and April 29)
• Kropf was named the 2025 Big South Preseason Baseball Player of the Year Kropf is the first Winthrop baseball player to earn Preseason Player of the Year honors since 2007 and the third time overall
• Sarna is coming off a freshman campaign in which he was named to the 2024 Big South Conference All-Freshman Team. He finished 9th in the Big South in overall pitching with an ERA of 4.74. His most notable performances last season were pitching a season-high 6.0 innings vs. Longwood on Mar. 17 and a season-high six strikeouts vs. Maine on Mar. 3
• Sarna ended 2024 having pitched 49.1 innings with a record of 4-4 in 13 games played. He was 2nd on the team in ERA and wins with four. He started nine games, striking out 38 batters, which was good for 4th on the team
• Harrison Wilson was named to the initial Watch List for the 20th Annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award, given to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I Baseball
• Wilson is one of the key relievers to return for the Eagles in 2024. Wilson started in nearly all the 49 games that the Eagles played last season. He started in 45 of 47 games he played in and pitched three games in relief, the only Winthrop offensive player on the season to do so. Wilson pitched a season-high 4.0 innings with 10 strikeouts and one walk at Queens (2/27) and offensively had a season-high five RBI's vs. USC Upstate (4/6). Wilson will also play infield as well
• Wilson was also recognized by D1 Baseball as the #3 top prospect in the Big South Conference
• He tied for the team lead in walks last season with 44
• Hernandez had a terrific freshman season with the Eagles in 2024. He finished tied for 7th in the Big South in doubles with a team-leading 15 doubles; starting in all 45 games he played in, finishing the season with 157 at-bats. He was also tied for the team lead in games started and home runs with seven and led the team in RBI's with 30 and walks with 19. He was named the Big South Freshman of the Week on May 6, which was the first weekly award of his career. A versatile player, Hernandez will DH, play first base and play in the outfield in 2025

2025 SEASON HONORS

• Koby Kropf – Redshirt senior – Outfielder
  • 2025 Big South Preseason Player of the Year/Preseason All-Conference Team
• Owen Sarna – Sophomore – Pitcher
  • 2025 Big South Preseason All-Conference Team
• Koby Kropf – Redshirt senior – Outfielder
  • 2025 D1Baseball's Top 100 Outfielders
• Koby Kropf – Redshirt senior – Outfielder
  • 2025 DIBaseball's Big South Preseason Player of the Year
• Harrison Wilson – Junior – Infielder/pitcher
  • 2025 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award Initial Watch List And The #3 Pro Prospect By The Big South Conference
• Owen Sarna-Big South Co-Starting Pitcher of the Week
  • Sarna allowed one hit and no runs over 5.2 innings to earn the win for Winthrop against Merrimack
  • He walked one and struck out nine, a new career-high
  • The right-handed sophomore struck out the side in the top of the first inning and the first four batters of the game overall
  • He finished with at least one strikeout in every inning, including fanning the final batter he faced in the sixth
  • The only hit Sarna allowed was a single to center in the top of the fifth
• Colin Crowley-Big South Freshman of the Week
  • Crowley batted .429 (6-14) with seven runs, four RBI and four doubles in Winthrop's three-game sweep of Merrimack
  • He posted at least one double and one RBI in all three games and walked once
  • The freshman infielder went 3-for-5 with three runs, a double and one RBI in his collegiate debut on Friday
  • He added another double and an RBI in the second game of Friday's doubleheader and then capped off the weekend with two doubles, three runs, and two RBI in the final game of the series on Sunday
• Harrison Wilson-Big South Co-Starting Pitcher of the Week
  • Wilson earned the win for Winthrop with a career-long 7.0 innings against UNC Asheville
  • The junior right-hander allowed just three hits and one run while striking out a season-high nine batters
  • He walked only two, didn't allow an extra-base hit, and surrendered his lone run on a fielder's choice groundout in the fourth
  • Wilson recorded strikeouts in six of his seven innings and got stronger as the game went on, fanning two batters in each of his final three frames
• Harrison Wilson – Junior – Infielder/pitcher
  • 2025 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Watch List by the College Baseball Foundation
• Liam McCallum – Senior – Pitcher/first baseman
  • 2025 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Watch List by the College Baseball Foundation
• Walker Brodt-Big South Relief Pitcher of the Week
  • Brodt came on in relief in consecutive games
  • He pitched one inning vs. Davidson, giving up just one hit and striking out three batters
  • He then outdid himself two days later in the first game of the series with Gardner-Webb, pitching the final four and one thirds inning to cement the 7-5 victory, giving up a pair of hits, one and punching out six Runnin' Bulldogs
• Nate Chronis-Big South Player of the Week
  • Chronis batted .438 (7-for-16) for the week with 15 RBI in a series sweep at Longwood, highlighted by a historic nine-RBI performance on Saturday
  • Over four games overall, he tallied four doubles, a home run, four runs scored, and two stolen bases
  • The senior delivered a career day in game two against the Lancers, going 3-for-5 with a two-run homer, a pair of bases-clearing doubles, and a sacrifice fly to finish with nine RBI, tying for the most in the NCAA this season
  • Chronis opened the week by going 2-for-4 with a double at Davidson, then added a double and two RBI in Friday's series opener in Farmville
  • He capped the weekend with another four RBI and two stolen bases to help lead the Eagles to a three-game sweep in conference play
  • He rounded out the week slugging .875 with a .455 on-base percentage
• Josh Skowronski-Big South Freshman of the Week
  • Skowronski homered twice, doubled twice, posted a pair of three-hit games, and drove in five runs across four games for Winthrop
  • He batted .421 (8-for-19) for the week, recorded at least one hit in every game, and added six runs and two stolen bases
  • After opening the week with an RBI double at Davidson, Skowronski totaled seven hits during a three-game series sweep at Longwood
  • He went 3-for-6 on Saturday, blasting a solo homer, adding an RBI single and a double, and scoring three times
  • He followed that performance by going 3-for-5 with a two-run homer on Sunday to help cap off the sweep
  • Skowronski finished the week slugging .842 with a .476 on-base percentage
• Mason Tompkins-Big South Freshman of the Week
  • Tompkins earned the midweek win for the Eagles by limiting Queens to just two hits and four total baserunners over 6.0 scoreless innings, striking out four
  • He needed only 75 pitches to complete his outing, inducing 10 popups and four groundouts while striking out the side in the second inning
• The only hits he allowed were a leadoff single in the first and another to open the fifth, with just one runner advancing into scoring position all game
• Connor Harris – Graduate student – Right handed pitcher
  • 2025 Tony Gwyn Trophy Finalist (Top 9)-NCBWA
• Shane Keup – Redshirt sophomore – Right handed pitcher
  • 2025 Bob McCloskey Insurance Big South Conference Graduate Fellowship

WATCH THE EAGLES ON ESPN+
Of the 33 home games this season, 22 of them will air live on ESPN+. You can also catch most of the road games in Big South Conference play on ESPN+. To watch Big South games on ESPN+ you must have a subscription to ESPN+. For more information on how to subscribe, click here.
 
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LOOKING AHEAD
In the event of an Eagle victory, Winthrop will advance to play #1 seeded USC Upstate on Thursday, May 22 at 11:00 a.m. In the event of an Eagle loss, Winthrop will play the loser (3) Charleston Southern and (6) Presbyterian at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21 in an elimination game.

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