Bulldogs take bite out of Eagles
Friday, July 9, 2010 at 8:47PM By Steven Bowers
The Winthrop baseball team lost both games of a doubleheader at Gardner-Webb Saturday to fall to 1-5 in the Big South and drop under .500 overall at 13-14.
The doubleheader finished off a weekend sweep at the hands of the Bulldogs and gave the Eagles their seventh loss in their last eight games. Gardner-Webb improved to 5-1 in the conference.
Winthrop lost the first game 3-1 with junior pitcher Robert Lake suffering the loss and dropping his record to 4-2. He gave up three runs on five hits, with five strikeouts and two walks in 6 2/3 innings of work.
Sophomore Chas Crane’s RBI single gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The base hit brought home senior Matt Thielepape, who had walked and stolen second.
Winthrop maintained the lead until the fifth when all three of Gardner-Webb’s runs scored on a bases-loaded single in the gap.
Senior Tyler McBride had two hits in the game.
Adam McFarland and Daniel Merck teamed up to hand the Eagles a 4-3 loss in the second game. Merck drove in McFarland with an RBI groundout in the eighth after McFarland’s double to cut Winthrop’s lead to 3-2.
McFarland had a fielder’s choice RBI to tie the game in the ninth before Merck won it with an RBI single off sophomore closer Tyler Mizenko. Mizenko surrendered two runs on three hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings to absorb the loss.
“Obviously, this is a heartbreaker,” Winthrop coach Joe Hudak said. “Our kids are playing hard, but we just didn’t get it done. In these two games today I thought we got great pitching performances. We just didn’t score any runs.”
Crane got the Eagles started with an RBI single in the first inning to score junior Tyler Cook, who singled to start the game. Junior Eddie Rohan doubled off the wall in the third and came home on Thielepape’s base hit to give Winthrop a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles scored their final run in the eighth without recording a hit. Rohan was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, scoring junior Adam Gliebe, who walked to lead off the inning. Freshman Tyler Donovan followed that with a walk. McBride was also hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Rohan, Thielepape and Crane drove in the runs for Winthrop. Rohan and Thielepape each had two hits.
