Box Score

CONWAY, SC—Winthrop couldn't overcome a four-run fourth by Coastal Carolina as it suffered a 7-1 loss in the final game of a three-game series, Sunday afternoon in Big South Conference softball action.

Winthrop finishes the regular season with an overall mark of 16-37 and finish league play at 3-18. Coastal Carolina improves to 38-17 overall and 13-8 in the Big South.

“The difference in the game was two inches,” said head coach Mark Cooke. “Their hits went off the end of our gloves and they cut ours. We hit the ball hard and Natalie Becker and Chelsey Schoenfeldt threw well.”

The Eagles trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth before the Chanticleers opened up the game. Nicole Saggiomo set the table for Coastal as she drew a leadoff walk and was moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chelsea Pineda. Jazmin Daigle drew a walk to put runners at first and second with one out and Stacy Snellings stepped up and delivered a single to center, scoring Saggiomo. Snellings moved to second on the throw home as Jessie Winans stepped up with runners at second and third. Winans tripled to right field to put Coastal in front 4-0. Winthrop made a pitching change at that moment as Schoenfeldt replaced Becker, but Coastal wasn't done. Sarah Maples ripped a double to right field for a 5-0 lead as Winans scored from second. The Chanticleers loaded the bases with one out as Kiana Quolas grounded to third trying to add to the lead. Kathryn Eberlin recorded the force out at third and threw home, nailing Maples for the inning-ending double play.

After making the great defensive play to end the fourth inning, Eberlin the Eagles only offense as she hit a home run to left with one out in the top of the fifth.

Coastal added two more runs in the sixth on a Kory Hayden single.

The Chanticleers ended up with seven runs on 10 hits while Winthrop had one run on seven hits and stranded seven runners.

Becker started the game in the circle and suffered the loss as she falls to 10-14 on the year after allowing five runs on five hits with three walks and a strikeout in 3.1 innings of work. Schoenfeldt allowed two runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts in 2.2 innings of relief.

Schoenfeldt was 1-for-2 on the day and will enter next week's Big South Tournament with a team-best four-game hit streak. Schoenfeldt set career-highs in hits, RBI, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.

Megan Chapman had two hits on the day while Eberlin, who is batting .353 over the last 10 games, also had two hits. The home run for Eberlin was the fourth of the season and sixth of her career.

Quolas earned the win in the circle for Coastal as she scattered seven hits allowing a run with a walk and nine strikeouts as she improved to 22-8 on the year.

Maples recorded four hits on the day for the Chanticleers while Hayden and Snellings each had two hits.

Winthrop finished 8^th in the league and will face top-seeded Radford on Thursday, May 10 at 4:30 p.m. in the first round of the Big South Tournament, held in Radford, VA.