Jeremy Plexico and David Hilfstein went toe-to-toe in an epic pitchers' duel for eight innings before Winthrop's bats heated up and helped the Eagles claim a 4-2 win over host High Point Friday afternoon at Erath Field.

The Eagles improve to 31-18 (12-3 in Big South play), while the Panthers drop to 12-35 (3-11).

The Panthers remain two wins behind Radford (5-12) and four behind Liberty (7-11) for the sixth and final spot in the 2003 Big South Baseball Championships.

Winthrop scored in the first when Kyle Roberson led off the game with a single, advanced to third on a base hit by Daniel Carte and scored on David Scoggin's sacrifice fly to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

After that, Hilftsein settled down and pitched a beauty, scattering five hits over the next seven innings to keep the Panthers in it.

Meanwhile, Plexico (10-3) worked on a gem of his own, allowing only an infield hit to Nick Thompson in the fifth through seven innings.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth, Thompson laced a lead-off single to right-center and advanced to second on a Jayson Hoffman sacrifice bunt. But Plexico struck out Matt Gorman and got Matt Christie to foul out on an incredible diving catch in foul territory by Carte in right field to end the threat.

The Eagles then rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth. Hilfstein hit Bennett Stapf to begin the inning, and Stapf advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ben Ehrlich. Chris LeRoux gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead when he doubled home Stapf. After Clayton Gordner replaced Hilftsein, Roberson reached on a bunt single, and Kyle Duff scored LeRoux from third with a single. Carte's RBI base hit scored Roberson to give Winthrop a seemingly-comfortable 4-0 advantage.

But the Panthers made Winthrop sweat in the bottom of the ninth. Colin Cronin led off the inning with a double to left before being forced at third on Rey Rojas' ground ball. Kemp Smith then doubled, advancing Rojas to third. Mike Bruschuk reached on a throwing error by Stapf, and Rojas and Smith came around to score to cut the lead in half, 4-2.

Plexico then got Ken Keesee to ground out and struck out Thompson to pick up his league-leading 10th win of the season. He allowed just one earned run in nine innings, struck out seven and didn't walk a batter.

Hilfstein went 8 1/3, allowed three runs and eight hits, striking out three.

The series continues Saturday and Sunday at Erath Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:00 pm both days. Click here to listen to the live broadcast.