Box Score
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ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop softball avoided a series sweep against Coastal Carolina as it pounded out 16 hits en route to a 9-5 victory in the final game of the series, Sunday afternoon in Big South Conference action at Terry Field.
The Eagles even their record to 21-21 on the year and 9-7 in the Big South as they also ended a four-game losing streak. Coastal Carolina falls to 25-18 overall and 12-5 in the league. Winthrop will be back in action on Tuesday, April 16 at 4 p.m. in a doubleheader against Campbell. Coastal Carolina will return home to take on Charleston Southern on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in a single-game.
“I thought we played a complete game today,” said head coach
Mark Cooke. “We made defensive plays, we hit the ball well. It's a positive for us to be able to salvage at least one win out of this series after yesterday.”
After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning, Winthrop fought back for six runs in the bottom half of the second.
Kathryn Eberlin started it off with a first pitch double to left field.
Alex White followed with a single to right center, putting runners at the corners.
Sara Allen stepped in and pulled the ball to left for an RBI single and moved to second as the left fielder misplayed the ball. That moved Allen to second and White to third with no outs.
Jenna Harbin followed with an RBI single to left center to put Winthrop in front 2-1.
Kristy Noble made it 3-1 in favor of Winthrop as she ripped a 1-2 pitch to left field. That kept the bases loaded for
McKenzi Corn, who came through with a single up the middle that scored two and put Winthrop up 5-1.
Chelsey Schoenfeldt added an RBI single to left center after Coastal Carolina made a pitching change and put in Ashley Bagwell.
Coastal Carolina tried to work its way back into the game in the top of the third inning as it added two more runs. Kiana Quolas tried to help her own cause by leading off with a double to left center. Quolas moved to third on a pop-out to right and then Cacia Pierre walked to put runners at the corners. Courtney Howell pinch-ran for Pierre and stole second to put two runners in scoring position. After Schoenfeldt was able to get Jazmin Daigle to ground out to short, keeping the runners at bay, Paige Goldsack came through with a double to right center to cut the deficit in half.
Winthrop continued to swing the bat well the rest of the game and added a couple of insurance runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Corn drove in her third run of the day in the fifth inning with a single to center as she has now reached base in 19 straight games. She finished the game 2-for-4 with three RBI. The damage could have been worse in the fifth as the Eagles had the bases loaded with no outs for Schoenfeldt, but Coastal Carolina ended the inning on the rare triple play. Schoenfeldt ripped a ball to the gap in left center that was caught on the run by Quolas. Quolas threw the ball in as the Eagle runners ran the bases too far and the Chanticleers recorded outs at second and third to complete the triple play.
It was
Teja Durante provided the RBI in the sixth inning as she drew a walk with the bases loaded and two outs.
Morgan Noad had an RBI in the sixth as she reached on a fielder's choice. Daigle drove in the fifth and final run of the game for Coastal Carolina in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice fly to center.
Schoenfeldt tossed a complete game allowing five runs on 11 hits with two walks and four strikeouts as she improves to 2-4. Quolas suffered the loss and falls to 14-9 after allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits with no walks and a strikeout in 1.1 innings. Bagwell tossed the final 4.2 innings allowing three runs on nine hits with four walks and four strikeouts.
Quolas also led Coastal Carolina with three hits while Goldsack had two hits and two RBI.
In addition to Corn's two hits and three RBI, Noble finished with a career-high four hits as she also drove in two runs. Durante and Harbin also finished with two hits.
