Winthrop baseball wins to claim Big South regular season title

The Winthrop baseball team had six players with two hits highlighted by a three-run home run from Grant English in an 8-1 victory Saturday over Radford at Williams Field.

Winthrop claims the Big South Conference regular season title with the win and No. 1 seed in next week’s Big South Tournament.

The Eagles were division champs in 2014, but this is the first regular season title without divisions since 2003. With the loss, Radford falls to 23-30 overall and 11-13 in the Big South.

Winthrop finishes the regular season at 31-22 overall and 17-7 in the league. The Eagles will open conference tournament play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against 8th-seeded Campbell.

English led the Eagles at the plate as he had two hits and his three-run home run in the sixth, Tyler Halstead was 2-for-3 with an RBI and one run, and Babe Thomas had two hits with a double and an RBI.

The Eagles led 4-0 in the top of the sixth when English hit a three-run bomb to right that scored Scout McFalls and Jake Sullivan to create some breathing room.

Winthrop scored in the top of the first when McFalls led off with a walk, advanced to second on a stolen base and scored on a single to left by Mitch Spires.

The Eagles made it 2-0 in the top of the fourth when Halstead scored on a single to right by Sullivan. They added two runs in the top of the fifth when Thomas singled to right that scored Spires from third, advanced to second on a stolen base and scored on a single by Halstead.

The Highlanders got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Adam Whitacre singled to left that scored Straton Podaras from third.

Winthrop added an insurance run in the top of the eighth when Spires and Lipscomb started the inning off with back-to-back singles and Spires scored from third when Thomas grounded into a double play.

Winthrop's Colten Rendon improved to 7-3 as he pitched five scoreless innings. Radford's Ryan Sande falls to 0-4 on the season as he threw two innings, allowing one run on two hits.

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Winthrop baseball wins to claim Big South regular season title."