Winthrop baseball works past USC Upstate

The Winthrop baseball team rallied and scored six consecutive runs to defeat USC Upstate 6-2 on Wednesday night.

The Eagles improved to 17-8 on the season while the Spartans fell to 8-17.

With the win, Zach Sightler moved to 4-1, coming in as relief and holding the Spartans to just one hit in one inning. Starter Riley Arnone, Travis Shelley and Joey Strain combined to allow one run on 13 hits.

Upstate took a 1-0 lead in the top the second inning as Charlie Carpenter scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Sam Kysor.

Jace Whitley led off the bottom of the fifth inning singling and stealing second. Brad Kaczka then walked before Chad Smith reached on fielder’s choice and Whitley was ruled safe at third to load the bases. Kyle Edwards hit an infield single to bring home Whitley before Kaczka scored on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Asbill.

The Spartans looked dangerous in the eighth inning, loading the bases with two outs but Shelley struck out Stephen Dowling to retire the side.

The Eagles added four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Mark Lowrie kicked off the inning singling through the left side and advanced to second on a passed ball. Roger Gonzalez knocked home Lowrie on a single up the middle and Gonzalez moved to second on a groundout by Whitley. Back to back singles by Kaczka and Edwards scored Gonzalez and got Kaczka to third with both runners coming home on a double by Asbill.

Upstate got one run back in the ninth inning as Daniel Fickas scored from second on a single up the middle by Carpenter.

Winthrop travels to Coastal Carolina for its first road Big South series this weekend. Game times are 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Winthrop baseball works past USC Upstate."