ROCK HILL, SC— After seven games on the road last week, Winthrop returns home to face Georgia Tech Tuesday evening in a double-header at Terry Field beginning at 5 p.m.
Winthrop (7-18) is coming off a 4-3 victory over Dartmouth while Georgia Tech has won two straight and 16 of its last 17 games as it sports a 23-5 overall record.
It will mark the 32nd and 33rd career meetings between the two programs as the Yellow Jackets lead the all-time series 18-13. The two teams last met in 2009 with the Eagles dropping both games at Georgia Tech 6-4 and 7-1. Georgia Tech was ranked 30th nationally at the time.
In 2008, the two teams split a double-header at Terry Field with Winthrop capturing game one 5-1 and Georgia Tech taking the nightcap 3-2.
Winthrop enters the game struggling offensively as it batted just .229 last week and scored 11 runs in seven games. On the year the team is hitting .232 with Brittany Stoudemire and Chelsey Schoenfeldt the only players batting over .300. Stoudemire leads the team with a .313 average and 12 RBI while Schoenfeldt is hitting .302.
Georgia Tech has been close to breaking in the Top 25 for a couple of weeks now and may move into the Top 25 in one of the polls before Tuesday's meeting. The Yellow Jackets are currently 27th in the Ultimate Softball Top 25, 28th in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 and 30th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll.
Winthrop's Ashleigh Jackson and Schoenfeldt are likely the starters against the Yellow Jackets as they've rotated starts since March 4. Jackson is currently 2-6 with a 3.63 earned run average while Schoenfeldt is 2-4 with a 3.48 ERA.
Georgia Tech features an offense that is batting .340 as a team and has scored 170 runs in 28 games (6.1 per game). The team is led by junior Kelsi Weseman's .419 average as she also has 22 runs, 10 home runs and 25 RBI. She was a 2010 First Team All-ACC selection and was also named to the All-Southeast Region Second Team. Shannon Bear is one of three hitters batting over .400 as she is third with a.408 average and has 20 runs, seven homers and 26 RBI. Hope Rush has a team-best 28 RBI and also has 10 home runs to go along with a .391 average.
The two teams have nearly different rosters from the meeting back in 2009, but Weseman did play as she was 4-for-6 with a run and two RBI. Jessica Sinclair went 2-for-3 in game one of that double-header.
Winthrop's Megan Chapman and Taylor Wright are the only two players to see action at the plate that day. Carol Reda did start game one behind the plate and eventually subbed into the game at catcher in game two. Chapman hit a homer in the first game and Wright had a hit in each.
Wright is currently pursuing her 100th career hit as she now has 98.
Georgia Tech's pitching staff consists of three solid hurlers, led by Kristen Adkins 10-2 record and 0.79 ERA. She has 75 strikeouts and 28 walks in 79.1 innings. Rush also pitches as she has a 9-3 record with a 1.24 ERA.
