ATHENS, GA—Winthrop softball dropped its fourth straight after suffering losses to Buffalo and North Carolina State, Saturday evening at the 8th Annual Georgia Softball Classic.
Winthrop started the evening with a 1-0 loss to Buffalo and then fell 8-0 in six innings to North Carolina State. The Lady Eagles are now 3-6 overall on the year and will wrap-up play at the Classic against Marshall on Sunday at 11 a.m.
The first game of the day was a tough loss as freshman Natalie Becker turned in an impressive pitching performance. Becker allowed one run on one hit with four walks and six strikeouts and falls to 2-2 on the year. Becker was very effective as Buffalo only managed to hit one ball out of the infield the entire game and that was a fly out to center in the third inning.
“We're just not hitting the ball very well right now,” said head coach Mark Cooke. “Plain and simple we're just not swinging the bats and we need to hit the ball better. We're just going to keep going out there and fighting.”
Buffalo scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Holly Luciano led off with the only hit of the game as she singled to the pitcher. Luciano was sacrificed over to second and then stole third. Becker issued a walk to Jessica Griffin and then Buffalo pulled off the double-steal as Luciano came home for the winning run.
In the second inning, Winthrop had runners at second and third with two outs, but Kelly Blea struck out swinging. That was the best scoring chance the Lady Eagles had.
In the final game of the day, North Carolina scored two runs in the first, a run in the second, a run in the third and a three runs in the fourth and Winthrop couldn't keep pace as it lost its fourth straight.
Senior Ashleigh Jackson suffered the loss as she falls to 1-3 after allowing seven runs (six earned) on seven hits with four walks and a strikeout in three innings.
The Wolfpack received a solid pitching performance from Kayla Cox as she allowed just two hits, no walks and struck out nine in a complete game performance.
