ROCK HILL, S.C. - Winthrop's Chas Crane belted two home runs and No. 5 seed Winthrop withstood a late rally to win 11-6 over No. 6 VMI in Game 6 of the 2010 Royal Purple Big South Baseball Championship, May 27 at The Winthrop Ballpark on the campus of Winthrop University.  With the victory, the Eagles improve to 27-29 and advance to play Friday at a to-be-determined time.  VMI is eliminated from the tournament and falls to 33-22.
 
VMI's Rob Dickinson delivered Tyler Mizenko's first pitch of the second inning over the left field wall for his fifth home run of the season and gave the Keydets a 1-0 lead.  But in the bottom of the third, Crane put Winthrop on the board with his 13th home run of the season - a three-run blast over the fence in right-center that scored Tyler Cook and Adam Gliebe.  Cook started the rally with a one-out double and Gliebe followed with an infield single.  Later in the inning, Patrick Gamblin singled and scored on Eddie Rohan's 14th home run of the year to give Winthrop a 5-1 lead.
 
VMI plated a run in the sixth to cut Winthrop's lead to 5-2.  With one out, Jordan Ballard singled to center and then advanced to third on Dickinson's two-out single to right.  Alex Haitsuka singled to right to score Ballard.  Winthrop extended its lead to 10-2 with five runs in the sixth.  Cook first brought home two runners with a double, and then scored on Gliebe's single to center.  Crane then hit his second home run of the game to nearly the same spot to score Gliebe and put the Eagles ahead by eight runs.
 
The Keydets fought back with two two-out rallies to get within four runs at 10-6.  With two outs in the seventh inning, Sam Roberts reached on an error and moved to second on Cory Spangenberg's single to center.  Both runners then scored on Ballard's double to right.  In the next inning, Chase Worthington drew a two-out walk and was followed by a Steele Myers single and a two-run double by pinch hitter Andrew Montague.  Winthrop turned to its third pitcher of the day, Greg Hough, and he struck out Roberts to end the threat.  The Eagles tacked on another run in the eighth for the final margin of the game, and used a 3-6-3 double play to end the game in the night.
 
Crane finished 3-5 at the plate with five RBI, and has now hit three home runs in the tournament.  Cook also had three hits and two driven in, while Rohan finished with two hits and two RBI.  His home run was the 41st of his career, tying him for eighth all-time in Big South history.  For VMI, Ballard had three hits and drove in two runs.  Spangenberg, Dickinson and Myers contributed two hits for the Keydets.
 
Mizenko (4-3) made his second start on the mound for Winthrop and allowed just two runs in 5.2 innings.  He struck out three and did not walk a batter in getting the win.  Roberts started and suffered the loss for VMI.  He allowed five runs on six hits in three innings.
 
Winthrop moves to 4-0 against VMI in the Big South Tournament.  The Eagles were without head coach Joe Hudak Thursday, who was serving a one-game suspension following his second ejection of the season on Wednesday vs. Liberty.

Keydet Quick Hits

• VMI set new school records in 2010 in batting average (.326), slugging percentage (.529), hits (629), doubles (133), home runs (78), RBIs (390), total bases (1022) and runs (414). The pitching staff also tied its school record for strikeouts (441), first achieved in 2008.
• Jordan Ballard's two-run double in the seventh inning gave him 58 runs driven in this season, tying him for the second-most in school history with Ryan Glynn, who did the same in 1995.
• Freshman Cory Spangenberg set new school marks for hits (87), runs (62) and total bases (140) in a season. In addition, his 24 stolen bases are tied for the sixth-most in a season by a Keydet.
• Junior Graham Sullivan cracked the school's single season top five in hits (81-2nd), total bases (134-2nd), RBIs (55-T4th), doubles (19-4th).
• Junior Sam Roberts did the same in both walks (43-2nd) and runs scored (56-T3rd).
• Sophomore Adam Lopez's 89 strikeouts are the fourth-most in a season by a Keydet hurler, while his 11.13 strikeouts per nine innings ratio is the third-best.
• Freshman John Garrett and Sam Roberts each earned six wins in 2010, which is tied for the seventh-highest total in program history. Sophomore Michael Devine, meanwhile, totaled seven saves, the second-most in school history.