Eagles drop weekend opener to Longwood
Winthrop opened its three-game Big South Conference series at Longwood with an 8-2 loss on Friday.
The Eagles fall to 12-26 on the year and 2-7 on the Big South and will look to bounce back when the two teams square off in a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. With the win, Longwood is now 17-11 on the year and 5-2 in the league.
“I felt like we made some good pitches tonight but it just didn’t go our way,” said Winthrop co-head coach Mark Cooke. “Our pitching only gave up a couple of hard hit balls but we’re going to come out tomorrow and continue to battle.”
Winthrop trailed 3-0 heading to the third when it got one back to cut into the deficit. The inning began with a leadoff single by Kiley Majette as she was sacrificed to second by Brooke Ellison. Shayna Covington then reached on a bunt single that moved Majette to third to put runners at the corners. Morgan Lowers stepped in and delivered an RBI single through the right side, scoring Majette and putting runners at first and second with one out. However, Elizabeth McCarthy was able to get Paige Haley to foul out to first and Leah Young to ground out to first.
Longwood broke open the game in the fourth inning with three runs to make it 6-1. A bases loaded single to the catcher scored the first run and the next two came off the Kaylynn Batten with a single up the middle.
The Lancers added two more in the fifth. In the sixth, before the Eagles got another one back in the sixth. The run came with two outs for the Eagles as Winthrop’s Blake Wallert doubled to right center, scoring pinch-runner Haley Zuehlke from first with two outs.
Chace Helms started the game for the Eagles as she allowed three runs on five hits in 1.1 innings. Majette tossed 3.2 innings of relief allowing five runs on nine hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Longwood’s McCarthy tossed a complete game allowing two runs on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout to earn the win and improve to 10-6.
The hit for Lowers in the third extended her hitting streak to nine games and Glover finished with two hits on the day and has now hit safely in six straight.
Men’s tennis: The Eagles (9-12, 3-3) fell to UNC Asheville (8-6, 4-2) 6-1 in a Big South Conference matchup on Friday afternoon.
The loss drops the Eagles record to 9-12 on the season and evens their Big South record at 3-3. UNC Asheville improved to 8-6 overall and 4-2 in league play.
Junior Tremayne Mitchell (Johannesburg, South Africa) captured the only point for the Eagles by at the No. 1 position as he beat Alex Croker 6-4, 6-2.
In doubles action, the Eagles lost two of the three matches to fall behind 1-0. The Eagles’ No. 3 duo of senior Michael Chen (Johnson City, Tenn.) and freshman Diego Quiroz (Guayaquil, Ecuador) claimed a 7-5 win over Bulldogs’ pairing of Thomas Panoulas and Reid Dillon.
Senior Steven Patrick (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Mitchell lost at No. 1 doubles to Croker and Brett Landau 6-3. At the No. 2 position, sophomore Josh Ryan (Queensland, Australia) and freshman Ruy Teixeira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) fell 6-2 to Henry Patten and Josh Swindler 6-2.
In the other singles matchups, Chen came up just short at No. 3 against Panoulas, losing 6-3, 6-4. At No. 5, Teixeira lost a tough battle against Landau as he fell 7-6, 6-4. Patten sealed the win for the Bulldogs with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Quiroz at No. 2, while Patrick lost a three-set match by the score of 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to Josh Swindler. Freshman Aditya Gokhale (Pune, India) went to a match breaker at No. 6 before falling 6-7, 6-3, 10-4 to Daniel Kripak.
Winthrop will continue Big South Conference play on Sunday against Coastal Carolina at 1 p.m. for Senior Day. on Memorial Courts. The three seniors — Michael Chen, Steven Patrick and J.D. O’Brien will be recognized during a 12:45 ceremony.
This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Eagles drop weekend opener to Longwood."