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ROCK HILL, SC—The 2012 softball regular season is nearing its conclusion as Winthrop will host Radford this weekend in its final home Big South Conference series.

The Eagles, 15-30 overall and 3-12 in the league, will take on league-leading Radford in a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. and finish the series on Sunday at 2 p.m. with a single game.

The Highlanders enter the series with a 25-14 overall record and are atop the conference standings at 9-3 (.750). Charleston Southern has the most wins in league play with 11 but has played five more games in conference play than Radford.

This is a series that has recently been in favor for Radford, having defeated the Eagles in six straight games and nine of the last 11. In 2011, Winthrop was shutout in all three games of the regular season series. Radford, which has been in the conference tournament title game five of the last six seasons, leads the all-time series 32-29.

Winthrop has lost two straight games, both of which they held the lead through five innings but allowed Gardner-Webb to rally late. This followed a strong pitching performance by Chelsey Schoenfeldt in the opener of the Gardner-Webb series, which the Eagles won 1-0. Schoenfeldt tossed 5.1 innings allowing just four hits, but Natalie Becker picked up the win as the Eagles scored the only run of the game in the sixth.

Offensively the Eagles have been inconsistent as the team has scored two or fewer runs in seven of the last 10 games. The three games the Eagles scored more they posted a total of 20 runs in those games. One of the most noticeable missing parts in the offense is the power numbers. Through the first 23 games of the season, Winthrop hit 16 home runs but has only six in the last 22 games. As a team, Winthrop had a .347 slugging percentage in the first 23 games and has a .315 slugging percentage in the last 22.

After the loss to Gardner-Webb on Sunday, 3-2, the Eagles have now been involved in 28 games decided by two runs or less and are 13-15 in those games.

Sophomore McKenzi Corn has been swinging a hot bat as she enters the series riding an eight-game hit streak and a .290 average on the season. In the last five games, Corn has three runs and three RBI. Schoenfeldt, who has led the team in batting nearly the entire season, continues to be consistent as she's hitting .373 on the year and .385 in the last five games. With 26 RBI on the year, she is now two shy of her single-season record set in 2011.

Schoenfeldt and Becker will be the featured pitchers in the weekend series. Schoenfeldt is 5-16 on the year and has not been on the winning side since Mar. 9 in a 9-8 win over Bowling Green. She's had some unfortunate luck as 10 of her starts since Mar. 9, the Eagles have lost by two or fewer runs. In six of the games, Winthrop lost by a single run.

Becker is 9-12 on the year and has picked up four of her wins in relief this season as she has a 3.64 ERA with 107 walks and 152 strikeouts in 150 innings of work.

Junior Kathryn Eberlin, who was in a 4-for-50 slump prior to last week, broke out as she was 4-for-11 on the week with a double, triple and two RBI in four starts.

Radford has won two straight after falling to Presbyterian College in the first game of its series last weekend. The Highlanders have won 17 of their last 22 games (including a 12-1 win at Virginia) and feature an offense averaging 4.1 runs per game and one of the top hitters in the league in Nichole Beall. Beall has a .382 average with 38 runs, 11 doubles, 10 home runs and 22 RBI with 23 walks. She has a league-best .511 on-base percentage that also ranks just outside of the top 30 nationally.

Radford has only been shut out twice this season and has scored five or more runs in a game 13 times. In league games, the Highlanders have exploded for nine or more runs five times.

Beall is the only player on the roster batting over .300 but the offense is well balanced with six other players have 11 or more RBI, including 21 by Micalah Sacre.

The top batter in league play for the Highlanders has been Jackie Warr, who is batting .212 on the season but sports a team-best .414 average in 12 starts in conference games.

The Eagles will see Jackie Jenkins and Sacre in the circle this weekend for Radford. Jenkins has the top ERA on the team at 2.26 and has 17 starts with 26 appearances. Jenkins is 11-6 on the year and has just 21 walks in 105.1 innings. Sacre is 6-4 on the year with a 2.86 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 63.2 innings of work and opponents are batting just .186 against the freshman righty. Jenkins is 6-2 in league games while Sacre is 1-1 and Stephanie Dameron is 2-0 in four relief appearances.

Winthrop is 6-4 against Radford in the last 10 games played at Terry Field, which includes one conference tournament victory in 2008.