Winthrop falls 3-1 in final baseball series opener; game two Friday night

Winthrop baseball fell 3-1 to Radford in Thursday night’s series opener at Radford Baseball Stadium in Radford, Va.

The Eagles are now 29-22 overall and 15-7 in the Big South, while Radford improved to 23-28 overall and 11-11 in the league.

Game two of the series is at 7 p.m. Friday with Nate Pawelczyk and Danny Hrbek on the mound.

With Radford leading 3-0 in the top of the seventh, Winthrop had bases loaded with one out but managed one run as it tried to dig into the Highlander lead. The run came on a fielder's choice by Hunter Lipscomb that brought in Grant English, who singled to start off the inning.

The Highlanders got on the board in the bottom of the third when Adam Whitacre hit a solo home run to right. Radford added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth when Whitacre singled, advanced to second on a stolen base and scored on a throwing error by the pitcher Zach Peek. Richard De La Cruz scored to make it 3-0 on a single to right by Danny Hrbek.

Reece Green (5-4) suffered the loss as he pitched five innings, allowing one run on one hit. Radford Zack Ridely (6-5) earned the win as he tossed six innings, allowing no runs on one hit while striking out six. Kyle Zurak walked away with his eighth save of the season.

Winthrop's Grant English went 1-for-3 with one run and Tyler Halstead went 1-for-3. Anthony Paulsen extended his reached on base to 32 games and hitting streak to 18 games.

This story was originally published May 18, 2017 at 9:29 PM with the headline "Winthrop falls 3-1 in final baseball series opener; game two Friday night."