ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop softball heads to Radford, VA this weekend to close out its Big South Conference regular season schedule with a three-game series beginning on Friday, April 22.
Winthrop will face the Highlanders in a double-header on Friday beginning at 2 p.m. and then will have the rubber match on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Winthrop is coming off a 4-3 come-from-behind win over Gardner-Webb on Tuesday for the regular season sweep and is now 15-28 overall and 5-10 in the Big South. It's the first series sweep for the Eagles this season and first since they the first series of last season when they took three from Presbyterian College to open up conference play.
Winthrop has dropped four of its last five games after winning five of seven games prior. On April 13, the Eagles took a double-header at Gardner-Webb and outscored its opponent 12-4 that day. Over the next four games, Winthrop batted just .213 as a team and scored a total of seven runs as it dropped all four games at home.
Winthrop finished the season with a 6-11 home record and currently has a winning record on the road at 6-5. The team's remaining five games are on the road and the team can have its first winning road record since 2008.
Winthrop has been a better hitting team on the road as it bats .311 away from home compared to an average of .240 at Terry Field. The Eagles average 4.3 runs on the road and one run less at 3.3 at home.
Sophomore Chelsey Schoenfeldt's career-hitting streak of 16 games came to an end in the win over Gardner-Webb on Tuesday. In her last at-bat Schoenfeldt ripped a laser to center but there wasn't enough air under it to leave the ballpark and it went right at the center fielder for the out. However, she does have a streak of reaching base in 19 straight games. During her hitting streak she batted .578 with 13 runs, eight doubles, five home runs and 19 RBI and had just three strikeouts in 45 at-bats. She also posted an impressive 1.089 slugging percentage as well as a .635 on-base percentage.
Junior Megan Chapman also hit well during that 16 game stretch as she batted .418 with a team-high 15 runs and also had 10 RBI. Chapman is tied for the league-lead in runs scored with Radford's Nichole Beall with 28. She also has 11 career hits and has two of her 10 career home runs against the Highlanders.
Schoenfeldt currently leads the Big South Conference with a .409 average and is second in hits with 45. With seven guaranteed games remaining in the season, Schoenfeldt has a chance to become the sixth different player in school history to finish a season with a.400 or better batting average.
The Eagles face a Radford team that is fighting for first place in the standings as it holds a one-game lead over Liberty.
The Highlanders have only played eight home games all season and hold a 5-3 mark at Radford University Softball Field. The three losses have come to quality competition in Virginia Tech, Longwood and James Madison. Radford swept Coastal Carolina last weekend in its first three-game series at home of the season. The offense scored 18 runs in three games and pitching held the Chanticleers to just three runs.
Radford has a number of talented players on the roster and is led offensively by Nichole Beall's .361 average with 28 runs, 13 doubles, nine home runs and league-leading 36 RBI. Preseason Player of the Year Kristen Shifflett has only started in 23 of the team's 42 games, but has an average of .321 with 14 runs, six doubles, two homers, 18 RBI and is 5-for-7 on the bases. Michelle Beall is second on the team with 20 RBI as she is hitting .252 with three doubles, three triples and three home runs.
The pitching for Radford has been solid as the team boasts a 2.12 earned run average led by sophomore Jackie Jenkins with a 13-2 record and ERA of 1.20. She has just 31 strikeouts in 104.2 innings, but opponents bat just .228 against her and her 13 wins are second best in the Big South. Stephanie Dameron is 11-3 with a 1.92 ERA while Chelsea Kelley is 4-6 with a 3.24 ERA.
Radford looks to continue a streak of its own having won 19 straight conference series. It's a streak that stretches back to the 2008 season, which was Winthrop taking the series 2-1 in Radford.
The winner of this series has gone on to the championship game of the Big South Tournament since the 2006 season. In 2005 the two teams split the season series and Winthrop ended up losing to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the championship game.
The all-time series favors the Highlanders as they hold a slight edge over Winthrop, 29-28.
