Winthrop baseball ready to ride momentum into postseason

The headline of last season’s Winthrop baseball media guide read “Eagles look for breakthrough year.”

Tom Riginos’ program got that breakthrough in nearly every sense.

The Eagles (40-19, 16-8 Big South) won 40 games for the first time since 2006, and had their first winning record under Riginos, and first overall since 2009. Winthrop’s team batting average jumped from .236 to .299, and the Eagles won four of their five non-conference series. The only thing missing was the school’s first NCAA tournament bid since 2006.

“We won 40 games but we had some bad losses,” said Riginos. “We’ve got to not have those bad losses this year to bad RPI teams. That hurt us in the long run.

“We just need to concentrate on what we do best. They focus on what they have to do to be successful. That’s the only thing we talk about. We don’t talk about external factors at all right now.”

There was also a personal breakthrough last spring. After making just 17 appearances as a sophomore, 6-foot-3, 215-pound lefty Matt Crohan began to show the potential that’s got Major League Baseball scouts busily scribbling on their clipboards.

Crohan was 7-4 in 14 starts last season with a 3.05 earned run average. The big lefty struck out 87 batters, walked 29 and held opponents to a .220 average when he was on the mound. He credited his older pitching teammates and hard work for the sudden attention.

“I just picked up everything I could, little things and just did the offseason work that the coaches wanted us to do and I saw big jumps that way,” Crohan said. “From there, really just took off with it.”

Crohan, who will likely leave Winthrop for pro ball after this season, grabbed his own coaches’ attention with a commanding outing against Kennesaw State last March when his fastball was clocked at 97 miles per hour. The big Long Islander struck out seven and walked none in an 11-4 Eagles win.

“Sometimes you just don’t know with kids, it clicks at certain times,” said Riginos. “That weekend, I remember sitting here and next thing you know, you see some 95’s on the gun and I looked at (pitching coach) Clint (Chrysler) and I said, ‘is that for real?’”

Crohan became the first Winthrop player to ever suit up for Team USA, when he joined the national squad last summer in Cary, N.C. In an outing against Chinese Taipei, Crohan threw three innings without surrendering an earned run.

“I ended up finding out after the conference tournament,” said Crohan. “Didn’t really have the best showing there so it was kind of a down moment and just reflecting on that. And then I got the call and it gave me that little boost.”

Crohan pairs a power slider - around 85, 87 miles per hour - with the fastball to keep hitters off balance. D1baseball.com named the big southpaw its 39th best prospect in college baseball this season, and he was named the Big South’s preseason pitcher of the year last week. Crohan combined with senior Sam Kmiec, who led the team in innings worked and strikeouts (96), gives Winthrop one of the best weekend starting 1-2 punches in the conference.

“We have two No. 1’s in my mind,” said Chrysler. “Sam’s thrown 270 innings here in his career and Sam’s gonna give you a chance to win every time out. Having those guys go one and two, you like where you are in a three-game series.”

Winthrop has six games in its first week, which will help the coaching staff get closer to deciding on a Sunday starter. But winning shouldn’t have to wait; the Eagles return 18 upperclassmen, including six of their top seven hitters from last season. Catcher Roger Gonzalez will be tasked with piloting the starting pitching; he was recently picked as a top-30 catching prospect by D1baseball.com and is just another of the veteran players expected to have a big year at Winthrop Ballpark.

“This team’s an older team, it’s a mature team, and I think that’s one of the biggest assets, is the experience you have,” said Riginos. “The confidence level that we have going into this year - because of our experience - is one of the biggest things we have going.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Winthrop baseball ready to ride momentum into postseason."