ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop softball team will look to build off its double-header sweep of Gardner-Webb on Wednesday as it hosts Presbyterian College Friday evening at 5 p.m. in a single game.
The game is important for both teams as the Eagles try to climb closer to a .500 record in league play and the upper half of the conference standings. Winthrop is 14-24- overall and 4-6 in the Big South. PC looks to even its conference record at 6-6 and tie Radford for the most wins in the league. The Blue Hose are 12-12-1 overall and have winning record of 8-4-1 in away games and 3-3 in the last six road contests.
Winthrop's offense has really stepped up lately having averaged 5.4 runs and batting .339 as a team. Several players have been hot at the plate lately and no one more than sophomore Chelsey Schoenfeldt. The sophomore is riding a 12-game hitting streak and batting a league-best .410. She's hitting .629 during her hitting streak and has 11 runs, 22 hits, six doubles, four home runs (two grand slams) and 18 RBI. As Schoenfeldt has lifted her game at the plate, so has the rest of the team. The team is 7-5 during the hitting streak and averaging 5.6 runs with 28 extra base hits. Junior shortstop Megan Chapman is hitting .405 in that stretch and senior second baseman Brittany Stoudemire is batting .357. Senior Ashleigh Jackson, hitting .250 on the year, is hitting .357 in the last 11 games and sophomore Kathryn Eberlin has become a force at the plate hitting .342 with 11 runs and six RBI in the last 12 games.
The sweep over Gardner-Webb ended a stretch of six straight series losses in the Big South for Winthrop.
On Wednesday the Eagles received back-to-back solid pitching performances in the double-header for the first time in awhile. Schoenfeldt allowed three earned runs late in game one for a 7-3 win and Natalie Becker allowed just one earned run in a 5-1 win.
The Eagles will need another solid pitching performance and to continue to swing the bats well for a win Friday night against a Blue Hose team that swept a double-header from the Eagles on Mar. 16 (3-1, 4-2).
PC has lost four of its last five games, but is coming off a 7-1 win at Furman on Wednesday. The Blue Hose have lost four straight in the Big South and five of their last seven since opening 2-0 with wins over Winthrop.
Tera Powell leads the Blue Hose offensively with a .361 average and second on the team with 21 runs. She is a threat on the bases having stole 27 bases in 28 attempts and has a .410 on-base percentage. Morgan Durham provides plenty of pop for the offense with five home runs and 17 RBI and a .344 average to go along. Codee Yeske and Leslie Hensley have also done a good job driving in runs with 19 and 18 RBI respectively.
Hensley not only does the job at the plate, but she's also been one of the top pitchers in the Big South this season. She is 13-7 on the year and sporting an impressive 0.94 ERA with 13 complete games, five shutouts and 89 strikeouts to just 15 walks. Her ERA ranks third nationally and the junior is tied for 43rd in total shutouts. Brittany Howell has made 14 starts and is 8-5 with a 2.82 ERA. PC has a team ERA of 1.85, which is by far the best in the Big South and ranks 22nd in the nation.
Winthrop leads the all-time series with PC at 7-3, but has lost two straight. The last time the two teams met in Rock Hill at Terry Field the Eagles won two one-run games.
