ROCK HILL, S.C. – Presbyterian College baseball posted 19 hits in its Big South Conference series opener at Winthrop on Friday night, but the home Eagles came out on top of a slugfest with a 16-9 victory.
PC falls to 24-25 and 4-15 in the Big South while Winthrop improves to 33-16 overall and 11-8 in Big South action. The two sides meet for game two on Saturday at 5 p.m.
The two teams combined for 27 runs and 37 hits in the game. PC scored six unanswered runs between the fourth and six innings but could not overcome an early 11-3 deficit.
Tyler Weyenberg (Marietta, Ga.) continued his strong play with a 4-for-35 night that included three RBI, extending his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games in the effort. Cam McRae (Darlington, S.C.) also went 4-for-5 with a home run and Jay Lizanich (Greer, S.C.) added two RBI.
Brad Kaczka went 4-for-5 for Winthrop and John Menken drove in four runs. Michael Green earned the win to improve to 2-0.
The Blue Hose took a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning behind a pair of hits from Weyenberg and Lizanich.
Winthrop answered with six runs in the first and two more in the second, leading 9-1 heading into the third.
PC began to chip away at the Eagles' lead in the third. Lizanich reached on a bunt single and took second on an error. McRae singled to put runners on the corners for Jacob Midkiff (Rock Hill, S.C.), who drove in Lizanich on a RBI single through the left side. Peter Johnson (Seattle, Wash.) capped the scoring by singling again for an 8-3 score.
Winthrop plated three more in the third to build its lead to 11-3, but PC cut the gap in half in the fourth inning, 11-7. Back-to-back singles from Brandon Martin (Gray Court, S.C.) and Motroni set up back-to-back triples from Weyenberg (two-run) and Glen Casaceli (one-run) to give PC six runs. Lizanich followed by hitting a sacrifice fly to center to pull PC within four, 11-7.
The Blue Hose sliced deeper into the lead in the fifth, when Weyenberg struck again on a two-out RBI double.
Cam McRae made it a two-run game in the sixth when the senior launched his seventh home run of the season—a solo shot—over the right field fence for an 11-9 score.
Winthrop threatened in the sixth, but leftfielder Brandon Martin made a sliding grab to end the frame to rob the Eagles of at least one run and keep PC within striking distance.
In the seventh, Winthrop stretched its lead back to three runs on an RBI single through the left side. Another two-run single and a sac fly made it 15-9 in favor of the home team.
The Eagles added one final run in the eighth for the 16-9 final.
Brian Kehner (Marietta, Ga.) took the loss to move to 1-3 on the year. Ethan Wortkoetter (Greer, S.C.) struck out two of the three batters he faced and Trey Hayes (Belton, S.C.) threw 3.2 innings of work with three runs allowed. Russell Thompson (Alcolu, S.C.) made his 33rd appearance and tossed 1.2 innings of relief, allowing one run.
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Presbyterian College 102 411 000 - 9 19 1 (24-25, 4-15)
Winthrop............ 623 000 41X - 16 18 1 (33-16, 11-8)
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Pitchers: Presbyterian College - KEHNER, Brian; HAYES, Trey(2); WORTKOETTER, Ethan(6);
SAUER, David(6); THOMPSON, Russell(7) and . Winthrop - Kmiec, Sam; Green, Michael(4);
Shelley, Travis(8) and .
Win-Green, Michael(2-0) Loss-KEHNER, Brian(1-3) T-3:37 A-893
HR PC - McRAE, Cam.
Weather: 90 degrees, sunny, 12 mph wind
