Winthrop baseball gets timely Big South sweep

Winthrop baseball got a much-needed sweep of UNC Asheville Saturday, taking a doubleheader from the visiting Bulldogs at Winthrop Ballpark.

John Menken hit a pair of home runs in the first game to drive the Eagles to a 13-4 win. And the hosts closed out the series win with an 8-5 victory in the second game, thanks in part to 13 hits. Coupled with Friday night’s 3-0 shutout of the Bulldogs, Winthrop (27-14, 7-8 Big South) is within a game of .500 in conference play.

“We got ourselves back into contention now, and I think that was huge for us,” said Winthrop coach Tom Riginos afterward.

Winthrop had gone 1-2 in its first four Big South series, falling to seventh place with a 4-8 record. The Eagles’ non-conference form has bordered on outstanding, with the team taking 20 of its 26 games outside of Big South play. But wins over Clemson and South Carolina will do nothing to get Winthrop back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006. Beating the conference’s last place team – Asheville (3-12, 16-24) – in three straight is much more helpful to that end.

“It’s massive, huge for us,” said Eagles senior Brad Kaczka, who was a combined 6-for-9 at the plate Saturday. “We know we have potential to be at the top of the conference, and sweeping this weekend is huge for us. Propels us on to the next weekend.”

Winthrop has a month, and three more conference series, until the Big South tournament in Boiling Springs, N.C. The three league series come against Charleston Southern, Presbyterian and Longwood. The latter two are stuck in the bottom three of the league standings, and all three offer the Eagles a chance to ascend the league table and procure a better tournament seed.

“I like the way we’re playing right now. We actually played well all week,” said Riginos, whose team beat Radford last Sunday to avoid a sweep, before taking down Charlotte on Tuesday.

Winthrop senior John Menken had the big offensive contribution in the first game. He went 3-for-3 with two home runs, including a grand slam late that busted the game open, and five RBI. Kaczka, who said he had a terrible batting practice session earlier in the day, was 2-for-5 with three RBI. Starting pitcher Matt Crohan got the win and Freddie Sultan picked up his first save of the year with three perfect innings of relief and five strikeouts.

In the nightcap, Winthrop fell behind 3-0 before scoring three runs in the third and fourth frames to reclaim the lead. In the third, Anthony Paulsen, Mark Lowrie and Roger Gonzalez produced RBI hits to tie the score at 3 all, before Tyler Asbill, Mitch Spires and Menken came through in the fourth with run-scoring hits to put the hosts in front 6-3.

“About the last two weeks, we’re starting to get some momentum going and some rhythm,” said Riginos. “It’s contagious. One guy starts to hit and then another guy starts to hit, it’s contagious. You’re seeing that right now.”

Winthrop added a run each in the next two innings to build an 8-3 cushion. UNC Asheville chipped into the lead with a pair of late runs, but Joey Strain pitched a largely uneventful ninth inning to chalk up his seventh save of the season.

“Doubleheaders are hard to win, they’re hard to win in college baseball,” said Riginos.

The Eagles’ 1995 team was honored in between the games. That squad was the first of any sport at Winthrop to play in the NCAA tournament and several members of the team were on hand to be honored. It was a timely reminder for this year’s squad that business end of the season is fast approaching.

This story was originally published April 18, 2015 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Winthrop baseball gets timely Big South sweep."