By Trey McCurry.
TCI continues our preseason baseball coverage by taking a brief look at Winthrop. Stay tuned to TCI throughout the preseason as we continue breakdown the 2015 roster and 2015 opponents as we lead up to Opening Day on February 13th.
Fifth-year Head Coach Tom Riginos is coming off his best season at Winthrop as the Eagles won the Big South Southern Division title last season but will be unable to defend the championship with the conference dropping the division format for 2015. Riginos will bring his squad back to Clemson, where he coached from 2003-10 and his son (Ben Paulsen) played, for the fourth straight season.
Winthrop, members of the Big South, finished 27-33 (14-13, 1st in Big South Southern Division) in 2014. The Eagles faced two ACC teams last season, winning at North Carolina and falling at Clemson in single games while also dropping at three-game series at eventual National Champion Vanderbilt. Winthrop played nine total games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament, going 2-7 after the games mentioned above, dropping two games to Kent State, defeating Liberty in the Big South Tournament, and falling to Campbell in the Big South Tournament Championship Game.
The Eagles welcome back 20 players from last year’s squad, with 8 position players returning and 13 pitchers (including two-way player Kyle Edwards) coming back. Five of the returning position players started at least 45 games while four of the returning pitchers made at least 10 starts and six had at least 15 appearances.
2014 stats for Winthrop Returners:
| Hitting |
AVG |
G-S |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
K |
SB |
| Babe Thomas |
.254 |
59-58 |
193 |
27 |
49 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
23 |
38 |
62 |
4-9 |
| John Menken |
.248 |
60-59 |
210 |
28 |
52 |
8 |
4 |
2 |
21 |
22 |
30 |
9-16 |
| Mark Lowrie |
.242 |
16-7 |
33 |
3 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
0-0 |
| Brad Kaczka |
.218 |
55-51 |
188 |
16 |
41 |
9 |
0 |
1 |
19 |
21 |
35 |
3-4 |
| Tyler Asbill |
.217 |
25-8 |
46 |
5 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
8 |
0-0 |
| Chad Smith |
.215 |
52-45 |
158 |
21 |
34 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
21 |
25 |
2-5 |
| Kyle Edwards |
.212 |
57-57 |
179 |
15 |
38 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
11 |
18 |
35 |
1-2 |
| Clay Altman |
.173 |
39-28 |
104 |
7 |
18 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
6 |
21 |
0-1 |
| Pitching |
ERA |
G-S |
W-L |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
OBA |
| Kyle Edwards ^ |
0.00 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.000 |
| Travis Shelley |
2.54 |
26-0 |
4-1 |
46.0 |
40 |
15 |
13 |
16 |
27 |
.229 |
| Sam Kmiec |
2.95 |
15-15 |
6-4 |
103.2 |
102 |
44 |
34 |
17 |
73 |
.265 |
| Josh Strong % |
3.01 |
22-14 |
2-5 |
95.2 |
92 |
36 |
32 |
18 |
38 |
.251 |
| Zach Sightler |
3.44 |
20-10 |
2-6 |
65.1 |
58 |
31 |
25 |
30 |
37 |
.246 |
| Justin Pace |
3.86 |
5-0 |
0-0 |
4.2 |
7 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
.318 |
| Zach Cook |
4.15 |
3-0 |
0-0 |
4.1 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
.313 |
| Matt Crohan |
4.37 |
17-5 |
1-4 |
35.0 |
45 |
23 |
17 |
15 |
23 |
.317 |
| Joey Strain ^ |
4.38 |
18-10 |
6-4 |
86.1 |
107 |
50 |
42 |
18 |
52 |
.307 |
| Michael Green |
13.50 |
4-1 |
0-1 |
3.1 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
.538 |
| Michael Gilroy |
15.43 |
5-0 |
0-0 |
2.1 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
.222 |
| Kaden Hepler |
18.00 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
1.0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
.500 |
| Austin Lawrence |
99.00 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
0.0 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
1.000 |
% – had three saves. ^ – had one save.