Albany Box Score
UNCW Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC—After losing the first game of the day 5-4 to Albany, Winthrop bounced back to defeat UNC Wilmington 2-0 in their final games of the Winthrop/Adidas Invitational, Saturday afternoon at Terry Field.
 
Albany ended the Eagles win streak at five games as Winthrop heads to its ne next tournament next week in Hawaii with an 11-10 record on the year. Albany fell to 4-4. UNC Wilmington dropped to 4-12 on the year.
 
“These were two great ball games,” said head coach Mark Cooke. “We showed a lot of character in the last inning of the Albany game and Natalie Becker threw a great ball game against UNC Wilmington. This weekend was an excellent tune up for Hawaii.”
 
The Eagles fought hard in the first game of the day against but couldn't get the clutch hit in the eighth inning to defeat the Great Danes.
 
The teams were scoreless until the third inning when Kelly Blea came up and hit a big solo home run over the center field fence to put the Eagles on top 1-0. This was Blea's first home run and second RBI of the year.
 
The Great Danes answered back in the top of the fourth inning with two runs on two hits. Herdon started the inning with a single to left and then scored on a line drive home run from Castro.
 
Albany added two more runs in the top of the sixth inning on just one hit. The inning started with Diane MacDowell reaching on a throwing error by Alex White. The error allowed her to advance to second base. With no outs and MacDowell on second base, Cooke replaced pitcher Chelsey Schoenfeldt with Natalie Becker. She got the first batter to pop up to Eberlin at first but then walked the next batter. She then threw a wild pitch that allowed the runners to advance to second and third base. Castro was then intentionally walked to load the bases since she already had one home run in the game. Becker threw another wild pitch but Blea got to it quickly and was able to tag out MacDowell coming home. The other runners advanced on the play and Wambold walked to load the bases again. Alcorn came through with a single up the middle to score the two runs in the inning.
 
The Eagles scored five runs on six hits, three of those runs coming in the bottom of the seventh inning. Schoenfeldt led off the inning with a walk and White followed her with a single up the middle to allow the tying run to come to the plate. Kelsey Ritter and Sarah Allen both came in to pinch hit and both struck out. Blea came up with two outs in the game and walked to load the bases for Jenna Harbin. Harbin came through with an RBI single to left field to score Schoenfeldt. Chapman came up next and hit a single to center field that scored Blea and White tying the game at four runs apiece.
 
MacDowell was placed on second base for the Great Danes to start the eighth inning and was immediately bunted over to third base by Stephanie Talerico. With two outs in the inning, Castro was intentionally walked. MacDowell scored and Castro advanced to second on a wild pitch from Schoenfeldt making the score 5-4 Great Danes.
 
In the second game of the day against UNCW, Becker only gave up two hits in seven innings of work on the mound for the Eagles. The Eagles offense put up two runs on seven hits in their 2-0 win over the Seahawks.
 
The Eagles scored first in the top of the 1^st inning. Corn drew a one out walk and then stole second. She scored after Schoenfeldt reached on an error by the Seahawks' second baseman. They added their final run of the game off of a solo home run by Kristy Noble in the top of second inning. The home run was her second on the year.
 
The best opportunity for the Eagles to add some more insurance runs came in the sixth inning. Carole Reda led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a single by Chapman. Corn followed with a single up the middle to load the bases with no outs for the Eagles and the heart of their lineup coming up. Eberlin struck out swinging, Schoenfeldt popped out to the shortstop and Mel Andrea grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning with three runners left on base. In the game, the Eagles left eight runners on base.
 
Becker dominated the Seahawk offense today. She only gave up two hits and two walks in seven innings. She had four strike outs and improved her record to 4-5 on the year.
 
On the day, Corn had four hits, Chapman had two hits and two RBIs and Schoenfeldt had one hit and two RBIs. 
 
Winthrop's next games in Honolulu, HI at the Hawaii Spring Fling Invitational will give the Eagles one of their toughest challenges in the history of the program. In the four days of games, Winthrop will face sixth-ranked Texas twice, top-ranked California, 21^st-ranked Texas A&M and 19^th-ranked Hawaii. Winthrop will also face Marist.

Winthrop will begin action in Hawaii on Wednesday, March 14 against Texas at 7:30 p.m. (EST).