ROCK HILL – The Buccaneers officially claimed their spot in next week's Big South Championships on Friday evening as they defeated Winthrop 4-3 in a rain shortened regular season finale. The Bucs finish the regular season with a 21-30 record to go along with a 12-12 mark in conference action.
 
"Gastman did a really good job in his two innings of work to start the game and Mac managed his way through the third to keep us in striking distance," said Head Coach Marc MacMillan following the victory. "Conway's speed along with some situational hitting and a big swing from Dak enabled us to put up our four runs. I appreciate Tom and his staff's efforts to try to get the field playable. It is unfortunate the amount of rain that dropped so quickly as this looked to have the making of another nail biter."
 
Charleston Southern was able to get the first run of the day in the top of the first. Winthrop loaded the bases between walks and hit by pitches and eventually walked Dakota Miller on five pitches to allow Cade Conway to score from third.
 
Winthrop got on the board in the bottom of the third, tallying a three-spot to take a 3-1 lead with a pair of these being scored on RBI groundouts.
 
The Buccaneers quickly tied the game at three apiece as they registered two runs in the top of the fourth. Gavin Bogdanchik led off the inning by reaching first on an error and a Dakota Miller home run to left field scored Bogdanchik as well.
 
In the fifth, Charleston Southern was able to pull ahead as Cade Conway reached first to leadoff the inning and stole second to move into scoring position. BJ Banyon put the ball in play that the pitcher had trouble handling which led to Conway scoring and putting CSU ahead 4-3.
 
After the middle of the sixth, the rain started to become a downpour and the game was called with Charleston Southern as the victors with a 4-3 final score.
 
Charleston Southern had Brett Gastman receive the start today and he threw a scoreless 2.0 innings. He allowed just two hits and a walk. Devin MacWatters was the only other CSU pitcher used and he tossed 3.0, giving up three earned runs.
 
Chandler Tuupo, Lucas Pringle and Miller each had a hit in the game with Miller having a pair of RBIs and Conway with a pair of runs scored. Conway also stole two bases in the game to move to 25 on the year which is tied for third most in a single season.
 
The Buccaneers will now look to prepare for their opening round matchup which will be released following the official conclusion of the regular season around the league tomorrow. The Big South Championships will be hosted in High Point, N.C. from May 23-25 at the stadium of the High Point Rockers. It will be a double elimination tournament featuring the top four teams from the regular season making the bracket.
 
NOTABLES:

• The fourth-place finish in the Big South is the highest in program history since 2011.
• This is the first time CSU baseball has had three consecutive top five finishes in the league standings since 1998-2000.
• They advance to the Big South Championships for the first time since 2022. The team advanced to the finals of the event, losing to #1 Campbell twice for them to clinch the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
• Head Coach Marc MacMillan moves to 4-0 in regular season finales in his CSU tenure.