ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop baseball team defeated the 10th-ranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the final game of the series 7-2 on Sunday afternoon at The Winthrop Ballpark.
The Eagles improve to 14-7 overall and 5-1 in the conference, while the Chanticleers drop their record to 18-4 on the season and 3-2 in conference play.
“It certainly is great for us to get the series win here today,” said head coach Joe Hudak. “It was a huge weekend for us, but it is just a weekend. It is good for us to take two out of three and we are excited about that, but we realize that the season is not over and we still have to come out ready to play.”
Robert Lake picked up his fourth win of the season after pitching 7.0 innings giving up only two runs on six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts. Austin Fleet earned the loss surrendering three runs on five hits, three walks and two strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work. Tyler Mizenko was awarded with his fifth save of the season.
“Robert threw a great ballgame,” Hudak said.
Coastal Carolina went up 1-0 on Winthrop in the top of the second inning on a leadoff homer by David Anderson off of Lake over the center field fence.
Tyler Bortnick gave the Chanticleers a 2-0 lead with his RBI single to center field in the fifth scoring Taylor Motter, who reached on an infield single between first and second base.
The Eagles scored three runs in their half of the fifth inning to take a 3-2 lead over Coastal Carolina highlighted by a two RBI double to left field by Eddie Tisdale that scored Kevin Nolan and Matt Thielepape. Nolan walked to lead off the inning and advanced to second on the single by Thielepape. Aaron Bonomi brought in the other run of the inning with his bases loaded walk scoring Eddie Rohan. Rohan reached base on an error by Anderson at first base.
Tisdale drove home two more runs on a single to right field in the bottom of the sixth to increase the Winthrop lead to 5-2. The single by Tisdale scored Nolan and Cam Walters. Nolan reached on a walk and advanced to second on the single to left field by Walters.
The Eagles added two runs to go ahead 7-2 in the bottom of the eighth that began with Bryn Henderson reaching on an infield single, stealing second base and advancing home on consecutive wild pitches by reliever Anthony Meo. Rohan then brought Walters in after reaching on a throwing error by Scott Woodward at third base. Walters walked in his at-bat.
Tisdale led Winthrop offensively with a 4-for-4 performance with four RBI on the afternoon, while Walters also added three hits. Bortnick and Anderson had one hit and one RBI apiece for the Chanticleers.
“It was a whole team effort the whole weekend and we are going to enjoy it,” Hudak added. “We are going to have to come out on Tuesday with the same intensity that we had this weekend.”
The Eagles will be back in action on Tuesday, Mar. 24 as they host Charlotte at 6 p.m.
