FARMVILLE, Va. – Hunter Lipscomb picked up a pair of RBI to lead Winthrop to a 7-3 win against Longwood Saturday afternoon at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
Winthrop (23-17, 10-5 Big South) continued its trend of hot hitting, scoring at least seven runs for the sixth straight game, taking the rubber match of the three-game series from Longwood (13-25, 5-10 Big South).
 
Lipscomb drove in a pair of runs on a two-run single in the sixth inning, which put Winthrop ahead 4-0 at the time. Winthrop outhit Longwood 11-8 for the game.
 
"We needed a break and put some really good swings on, but the balls weren't falling today," Longwood head coach Ryan Mau said. "That's the game of baseball. Balls were just right at their defense and it seemed to be that kind of day. We hit balls hard right at them and when Winthrop hit them, they were hit where we weren't. That's the way it goes some times."
 
Colton Rendon (5-3) picked up the win in the start for Winthrop with 7.1 innings of three-run ball, striking out a pair of batters and scattering seven hits with no walks issued.
 
"I thought Redon had good stuff, he was mixing in his pitches pretty well," Mau said. "We barreled him up early, but unfortunately balls were just right at them."
 
Longwood starter Zach Potojecki (2-5) suffered the loss after allowing a pair of runs, one earned, in 3.0 innings of work. Potojecki struck out a pair of batters with two walks issued and two hits allowed.
 
"I didn't think Poto was very sharp today, he just didn't have his good stuff today and we saw that early and made the move to the bullpen as early as we could," Mau said.
 
Potojecki, who pitched to two batters in the second game of Friday's doubleheader, threw just 55 pitches in the loss. With only one earned run allowed Saturday the junior right-hander lowered his season ERA to 3.86.
 
Devin Gould answered the call to the bullpen, retiring the first six hitters he faced with three strikeouts in that span. In all, Gould went 3.2 innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits and one walk with the three punchouts.
 
"I thought Devin threw the ball really well," Mau said. "A couple of balls just happened to get in on the hands of hitters that flared in. It's a little unfortunate the way the ball bounced for us today."
 
Senior infielder Brandon Harvell had a multi-RBI game for the Lancers, tying his career high with two runs batted in.
 
Nate Blakeney and Ryan Shull each picked up a pair of hits in the loss. Blakeney went 2-for-4 and Shull was 2-for-3 with a stolen base and a run scored.
 
Winthrop senior catcher Babe Thomas homered for the third consecutive game to start out the scoring. Thomas' seventh of the season was a solo shot to right field, which put Winthrop up 1-0 in the second inning. Thomas homered in all three games of the series, with one going to left, one to center, and one to right, becoming the first Eagle this season to homer thrice in a series.
 
Winthrop doubled the lead with a sacrifice fly in the third inning off the bat of reigning Big South Player of the Week Anthony Paulsen.
 
Once Gould took the mound for the Lancers he spun a pair of perfect innings in the fourth and fifth innings.
 
In the sixth Grant English led off the frame with a jam-shot single. The switch hitter, hitting from the left side against Gould, dropped a 1-0 offering into left. In the next at-bat Paulsen, a lefty, reached on a similar hit, fighting off an 0-2 pitch.
 
Mitch Spires put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up and Lipscomb singled back up the middle to plate both English and Paulsen, running Winthrop's lead to 4-0.
 
After Winthrop added an insurance run in the seventh inning, Longwood put the potential tying run on base in the eighth inning.
 
Alex Lewis singled to start the frame, Mac McCafferty was hit by pitch, and then Shull dropped an opposite-field flare single into left field to load the bases with no outs. Two batters later Brandon Harvell singled down the left field line, bringing the deficit to 5-2.
 
In the next at-bat Sammy Miller, representing the tying run, walked to load the bases with one out. Michael Osinski, representing the go-ahead run, flew out to center field and plated Shull on a sacrifice fly.
 
In the ninth inning Winthrop scored a pair more to stretch the Eagle lead back out to four runs. Riley Arnone, who entered the game in the eighth with the bases loaded and one out, picked up the save, his second of the season, holding Longwood to just one hit in 1.2 innings and struck out a pair of batters.
 
Longwood returns to action Tuesday with a home game against VCU, the completion of a home-and-home series. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
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