Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop hit four home runs in the bottom of the seventh to highlight a come-from-behind victory over Monmouth, 8-7, and dropped its first game of the day 5-0 to Virginia on the first day of the Combat Invitational.

Winthrop trailed 7-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning when the Eagles went back-to-back with home runs by Kristy Noble and McKenzi Corn. Then with one away, Kathryn Eberlin hit a home run to right center that cleared the flag pole to cut the deficit to one. Winthrop wasn't done as Alex White made it back-to-back homers for the second time in the inning as she hammered a shot to straight away center to tie the game at 7-7.

The game went extra innings using the international tie-breaker, but Winthrop held the Hawks from getting a run as Sutton Watson made quick work. In the bottom of the eighth, Teja Durante sacrificed Kim Ryder from second to third and then Monmouth got the second out it needed as Noble struck out. Corn hit a slow roller to short and was able to beat the throw to first by a half step as Ryder crossed the plate for the winning run.

“I feel this team is a special one and they don't quit,” said Winthrop head coach Mark Cooke. “I've never seen four solo home runs to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh in all my years of coaching. Sutton Watson pitched a heck of a ball game, she was tremendous. We had timely hits and it was a terrific team effort today. This is the kind of team I expected us to be.”

Watson earned the win and improved to 5-3 on the year as she tossed 5.2 innings of relief allowing just one hit with four walks and a career-high nine strikeouts. Corn finished the game with three hits while Eberlin had two hits. Corn, Schoenfeldt and Eberlin each had two RBI.

After going 1-2-3 in the first two innings, Winthrop's offense woke up with two outs in the bottom of the third when Noble reached on an error on a grounder to third base. Noble then moved to third as Corn ripped a double off the right field fence. Chelsey Schoenfeldt followed with a double to right to make it a 7-2 deficit. Eberlin made it 7-3 after she singled to through the left side and Schoenfeldt came around to score.

Monmouth led 4-0 after two innings large in part to a couple of home runs. Winthrop's pitching struggled to throw strikes in the third inning as it issued five walks as the Hawks tacked on three more runs for a 7-0 advantage.  

In the first game against Virginia, Winthrop couldn't get its bats going as Melanie Mitchell kept them in check with 13 strikeouts and allowed just one hit for a complete game shutout. It was the first time all season that the Eagles were shutout (12^th game).

Watson tossed 6.1 innings allowing four runs on three hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

Virginia (8-7) broke scoreless tie in the top of the fourth inning with a two-out solo shot by Marcy Bowdren.

That score held until the seventh but before the Eagles had a chance to tie the game or potentially take the lead, the Cavaliers added four runs. The big hit came off the bat of Karli Johnson as she hammered a two-run shot to left.

Winthrop will be back in action on Saturday, Mar. 2 on day two of the Combat Invitational as it will face Rhode Island at 1 p.m. and UNC Greensboro at 3 p.m.