Eagles Down Radford 11-2

    ROCK HILL, SC– The Winthrop baseball team kept its hopes alive to finish out of the cellar in the Big South Conference standings with an 11-2 victory over Radford, Friday evening at the Winthrop Ballpark.

    Ben Thurmond made his second start since returning from an arm injury and tossed seven innings allowing one run on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts. He improves his record to 3-3.

    It was an eight run seventh inning that gave the Eagles (25-28, 6-13) the win. The inning was highlighted by a two-run double by Mark Schmidt, an RBI double by Brian Haney and RBI singles by Todd Leathers and Carlos de la Rionda.

    Bennett Stapf got things going early on for the Eagles as he homered in his first two at-bats to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead. He finished the game 2-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBIs.    

    Radford (18-29, 7-12) had five different players with one hit. Mark Fleisher had a run and an RBI. Cory Koliscak took the loss on the mound for Radford as he allowed three runs on six hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

    With the win, the Eagles move closer to getting out of the bottom of the conference standings. If the Eagles can take the double-header from Radford on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m., then they can finish in sixth place.