The Hawk and the Hammer

Sunday, March 4

Rock Hill, SC

1:00

Kent State University

6-3

Winthrop

4-8

Kent State

Winthrop

3/4/2018 8:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

KSU gets key homers from Hawkins and Hamilton to take series from Eagles

By: Ty Linder

The Hawk and the Hammer

KSU gets key homers from Hawkins and Hamilton to take series from Eagles

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Reilly Hawkins led off a game with a home run for the second time in as many seasons and Brad Hamilton belted a three-run homer in the fourth to help lead Kent State to a win in the rubber match of a three game series featuring defending conference champions.

Trailing 4-3 in the fourth, Hamilton stepped into the box with Tim DalPorto and Pete Schuler on the bases. He then elevated a breaking pitch and drove it well over the left-center field wall on a crisp Sunday afternoon in the Palmetto State for a game-changing three-run home run. Three innings earlier, Hawkins repeated his lead-off heroics at Belmont last February by homering to left to start the game.

In the last of the fourth, the host Eagles mounted a response threat by loading the bases with no outs. That brought on the KSU bullpen and Zach Schultz who calmly extinguished the Winthrop rally by inducing two shallow fly outs and a force at the plate. It kept momentum with the Golden Flashes for good, 7-4.

The Eagles threatened in the seventh and eighth, but Austin Havekost kept the Golden Flashes in front with a bevy of tough-spot pitches. In the ninth, Robert Zeigler picked up his third save. He faced three and struck two of them out in a perfect final frame.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Golden Flashes will head to Arkansas for a three-game series against the Diamond Hogs next Friday-Sunday March 9-11. Arkansas is ranked fifth in the DIBaseball.com Top 25.