ROCK HILL – Winthrop defeated Charleston Southern in both games of a doubleheader on Thursday to begin their final regular season conference series. Each of the games were decided by a single run with the Eagles prevailing.
 
GAME ONE: Charleston Southern – 2, Winthrop – 3
Winthrop took the first game of the series to kickoff Thursday's doubleheader by a final score of 3-2. The Eagles scored the first run of the day off with an RBI double in the second inning.
 
Charleston Southern was able to take their lone lead of the day in the top of the sixth inning. Dakota Miller had a single with an out on the board and had a BJ Banyon RBI double drive him home. Later in the inning, Christian Bauman had a single to right field that brought Banyon home and put CSU ahead 2-1.
 
The lead was short lived as Winthrop responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs of their own. They led the inning off with a triple and the runner was brought home immediately on a sacrifice fly to level the game at 2-2. The Eagles then had a solo home run to right field to regain the lead with the score at 3-2. The Bucs were able to put runners on the basepaths but were unable to bring them home with the first game ending at 3-2.
 
Sam Massey had the start for the Bucs and picked up the loss. He threw 6.1 inning and struck out five batters in his outing. He allowed just one walk and gave up six hits. Christian Robb was the lone other pitcher used and pitched 1.2. Robb did not allow a hit and gave up just one walk.
 
Banyon led the team in hitting with a pair of hits. Other Bucs that had hits in the game were JJ Rivera, Conway, Chandler Tuupo, Miller, Lucas Pringle, Bauman, Evann Long and Gavin Bogdanchik. Banyon and Bauman each had an RBI while Miller and Banyon were the runs scored.
 
GAME TWO: Charleston Southern – 3, Winthrop – 4
The second game was more back-and-forth with the game being decided on a walk-off hit by pitch.
 
Charleston Southern scored the first run of the game as Cade Conway led the game off with a double to left field. He moved to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lucas Pringle.
 
Winthrop scored on sacrifice flies in the third and fourth innings to tie the game and then take the lead at 2-1.
 
The Buccaneers tallied their second run of the game in a similar way as the first with a Conway leadoff hit. He got moved to third on a single to center field by Pringle and was driven home on a fielder's choice by Chandler Tuupo. This brought the score level at 2-2. It was short lived as the Eagles led the bottom half of the inning off with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to regain the lead with the score now at 3-2.
 
Charleston Southern found a way to stay in the game and bring it back even in the 8^th inning. The Bucs had runners on first and second with an out on the board s Dakota Miller stepped to the plate. He drilled the ball to the second baseman and the Eagles defense rushed the play trying to turn a double play. They were able to get the out on the running trying to advance to second base, but threw the ball into the dugout, allowing the runner originally on second base to score.

In the 9th, Winthrop was able to get the bases loaded with just one out on the scoreboard. Matsuoka was pitching aggressively trying to draw a swing and miss and ended up hitting the batter, letting the Eagles get the go-ahead, walk-off score.
 
Nick Timpanelli had the start on the mound for the Bucs today and threw the first 5.0 frames. He allowed three hits and three walks to go with a pair of earned runs. Dylan Matsuoka pitched for the remaining 3.1 innings with two earned runs allowed to go with three hits and a walk.
 
At the plate, Cade Conway was the top performer of the day as he went a perfect 4-4 to go with a walk. He also had a pair of stolen bases and runs scored. Pringle had a pair of hits in the game while Tuupo, Brock Kuehler and Alex Urlaub each added one. Pringle, Tuupo and Miller had one RBI apiece.
 
UP NEXT:
Charleston Southern (11-12) will return to The Winthrop Ballpark on Friday, May 17 for the series finale at 5:00 p.m. against the Eagles (8-11). With a victory, the Buccaneers will clinch their spot in the Big South Championship which will be held in High Point, N.C. from May 23-25.