ROCK HILL, S.C. - Presbyterian College
baseball suffered a pair of hard-fought defeats on Saturday afternoon to the
Winthrop Eagles. PC fell, 15-12 in the
first game of the doubleheader and 4-0 in the night-cap.
Game one of the
doubleheader was an offensive showcase with 27 total runs off 39 combined hits. PC (11-31, 3-15 BSC) was led in the opener by
Tony Micklon's 3-for-5 effort in which he came up just a triple shy of hitting
for the cycle. He posted PC's first run
in the second inning with a solo home run.
The tally gave the Blue Hose a 1-0 lead.
Winthrop (22-20,
10-8 BSC) answered with three runs in the second, one in the third before
tacking on three more to go up 7-1 after four innings.
The big inning
for PC came in the fourth as the visitors banged in five runs off six
hits. Aaron Preston's team leading fifth
home run of the season opened the inning.
Five consecutive hits, combined with a throwing error by the
centerfielder allowed four runs to score before the first out was
recorded. The runs cut the Winthrop lead
to 7-6 after four and a half innings.
The Eagles
answered again with a run in the fifth, followed by three more in the sixth
inning to go up by a 11-6.
Four more runs
came home in the top of the seventh inning.
Preston sent two across on his single to center field. The final two runs came home when leadoff
hitter Gabe Grammer bashed a triple to center to further cut the lead down to
11-10.
Once again,
the Eagles would answer with a run in the bottom of the ninth.
In the top of
the eighth, Nate Horton plated PC's 11th run, Kenny Bryant, with a
single dumped into center. Replacement
third baseman Jeff Tatum game to the plate and grounded into a 6-4-3 double
play. In the process, however, he
allowed Micklon to cross for his third run of the game and tie the game up at
12-12.
Winthrop,
however, would score three more in the bottom of the ninth to take the victory.
Five pitchers
saw action for the Blue Hose with Jesse Harmon getting the start and going
three and a third innings. He fanned
four batters in his stint on the rubber.
Jordan Pace was given the loss on the hill to fall to 1-3 on the season.
In the second
game, Winthrop quieted the Blue Hose bats to just three hits. Chris Powell tossed a stellar outing by
holding Winthrop to just four runs off four hits in seven innings of work. He struck out six in the outing.
Matt Hill
recorded PC's first hit in the second inning with a single to left. Winthrop would dismiss the next 21 PC batters
in order until Kenny Bryant recorded his first hit of the day to extend his
current hit streak to 14 games. He was
moved around to third base on Micklon's single to right. Both runners, however, would be stranded by a
game ending fly ball to left.
The eagles
notched their first run in the fourth inning and added three more in the
seventh to deal Powell the loss, dropping him to 6-3 on the season. Winthrop's D'Angelo went the distance on the
other side of the ledger to improve to 6-3.
The series
concludes on Sunday afternoon with an afternoon matinee starting at 2 p.m.
