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ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop softball team will be back in action this weekend as it hosts Liberty in a Big South Conference three-game series at Terry Field.
The series begins with a doubleheader on Friday at 3 p.m. and will wrap-up on Saturday with a single-game at 1 p.m. It's a key series for both teams as just two wins separate them in the league standings.
Winthrop enters the series at 21-23 overall and 9-9 in the Big South while Liberty is 19-25 overall and 8-10 in the league. Taking the series 2-1 or 3-0 would keep Winthrop's hopes alive for a Top 4 finish in the regular season standings, but dropping the series will likely have them battling Liberty for the 5
th/6
th seeds.
The Eagles are coming off a doubleheader loss to Campbell on Tuesday in which they were shutout in both games. Winthrop had been shutout just twice all season coming into the doubleheader. Those are the only two games in league play in which Winthrop failed to score.
Junior
McKenzi Corn continues to lead the team with a .409 batting average as she pursues the first .400 or better batting average in a season since Lisa Kingsmore batted .458 in 2009. If Corn finishes the season with a .400 or better average, it would be the 10
th time in school history a player has done so. Her 37 runs lead the team and had a stretch of 19 straight games on base come to an end in the first game against Campbell on Tuesday. She entered the week with a .409 average, ranking her 65
th in the country. In 18 league games, she's batting .434 with 17 runs, six doubles and 10 RBI.
Senior Chelsey Shoenfeldt entered the week ranked 15
th in RBI per game and continues to lead the team in RBI with 50. She is now just 10 RBI shy of the school's single-season record set by Jenny Scrymgeour in 2007. She is batting .336 with 28 runs, 13 home runs and 27 walks. After tying the school record with her 27 walks, the next one will give her the record (which had been held by three players). She's struggled at the plate in the last five games going 3-for-16 (.188) with no runs and one RBI. In 2012, Schoenfeldt was 5-for-9 with two runs, a home run and two RBI in the three-game series at Liberty.
Over the last five games, Winthrop is batting .250 while opponents are hitting over .300. Sophomore
Sutton Watson is 0-3 in her last three appearances while sporting a 1.79 ERA with 12 strikeouts and six walks in 15.2 innings over that span. The main reason for the lack of run production during the last five games is the 4-5-6 hitters. The top of the order for the Eagles is 17-for-41 (.415) while Schoenfeldt,
Kathryn Eberlin and
Alex White are a combined 7-for-45 (.156). That trio is responsible for over 50 percent of the team's RBI on the year.
The team is still chasing the single-season home run record of 52 as it currently has 49 on the year. The next home run by
Kristy Noble and Eberlin will be their 14
th, placing them among the all-time Top 10 at Winthrop.
After sweeping a three-game series at Gardner-Webb on April 7, the Eagles have lost six-of-seven games. Winthrop hopes to turn things around against a Liberty team that has dropped four straight after dropping doubleheaders against Longwood and James Madison this week.
The Flames have been swept just once this season in a league series as it dropped all three at Campbell. Two of the losses were by one run and the other by three.
Leading the way offensively for Liberty is Katie Zavodny with a .392 average, 33 runs, and 34 stolen bases. Sammi Shivock and Kelby Allen supply much of the power. Shivock is batting .353 with 26 runs, 11 doubles, six home runs and a team-best 35 RBI. Allen is batting .287 with 25 runs, six doubles, seven home runs and 28 RBI.
Winthrop will get a heavy dose of Annah Jo Brittingham and Chandler Ball as the duo have each tossed over 100 innings this season and have 37 of the 44 starts. Brittingham has a team-best ERA of 4.32 with an 8-7 record and 62 strikeouts to 46 walks in 124.2 innings. Ball is 8-11 on the year with a 4.82 ERA and 54 strikeouts to 53 walks in 119 innings.
In 2012, Winthrop captured the series at Liberty and is now leading the all-time series 31-29.
