RADFORD, VA— Radford scored five runs over the final two innings to open up a tight game and hand Winthrop a 7-0 loss in the opener of a three-game set this weekend, Friday night in Big South Conference softball action.
Winthrop falls to 15-29 overall and 5-11 in the conference while Radford improves to 29-15 overall and 10-2 in the league.
The Eagles committed four errors on the night and five of the seven runs in the game were unearned.
The big inning for the Highlanders came in the fifth as things didn't start off well for the Eagles as a Brittany Stoudemire error at second put Lauren Williams at first to lead off. Kristen Shifflett singled to second base to put runners on for Nichole Beall, the conference leader in RBI. Chelsey Schoenfeldt got Beall to hit a grounder to short and Megan Chapman tossed the ball to third to get the force out. Cunningham stepped in and hit her second double of the game to score Shifflett for a 3-0 lead. Radford made it 5-0 by the end of the inning after Shannon Keefe had a fielder's choice RBI and Michelle Beall scored Cunningham on a sacrifice bunt.
“The score doesn't reflect the game,” said Winthrop head coach Mark Cooke. “We made errors that gave them five runs. Chelsey pitched the best I've seen her pitch and our team just made mental errors behind her. You can't do that against a team like Radford. It's frustrating. We got some good swings against their pitcher, but Radford was able to get runs and we couldn't. The game was a whole lot better than it looks on paper.”
Radford's run in the 4th inning that made it 2-0 came on a two-out grounder that led to an error by Stoudemire at second.
Radford added some insurance in the sixth as Hannan Ojeda singled with one out to get things going offensively. Williams then reached on an error by Courtney Gaddy at second and runners were at first and second with one out. Shifflett stepped up and ripped her first hit of the day up the middle and advanced to second on the throw as Ojeda came around to score for a 6-0 lead. Nichole Beall made it 7-0 with a ground out to second with one out.
In the top of the first inning, Winthrop looked to get on the scoreboard first as Teja Durante and Kathryn Eberlin singled back-to-back with one out. Chelsey Schoenfeldt grounded out to second and the runners moved over, but Stoudemire grounded out to the shortstop to end the threat.
Radford had back-to-back hits in the bottom of the first with two outs for a 1-0 lead. Cunningham doubled to left center on a 0-1 pitch and scored as Keefe singled to right field.
Schoenfeldt took the loss and falls to 8-12 on the year after allowing seven runs (two earned) on nine hits with no walks and two strikeouts.
Jackie Jenkins earned the win for Radford and is now 14-2 after allowing no runs on five hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
Five different players recorded one hit for the Eagles and Schoenfeldt reached base for the 20th straight game with a single in the seventh.
Shifflett, Cunningham and Keefe all recorded two hits on the day as Keefe had two RBI.
Winthrop and Radford will wrap-up the series on Saturday in a double-header set to start at 1 p.m.
