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ROCK HILL, SC—The softball team will be the fifth seed for this week's Big South Conference Championship presented by Musco Lighting as it will face fourth-seeded Radford in the first round on Thursday at noon at Terry Field.

Winthrop ended the regular season with four straight losses as it posted a 25-27 overall record and a 12-12 mark in the Big South, placing fifth in the league standings. The Eagles take on Radford, who finished the regular season at 20-34 and 13-11 in the league after sweeping Winthrop last weekend.

The Eagles and Radford meet in the first round for the second straight season and are no strangers in going head-to-head in the conference tournament as the two teams have faced each other 12 times in the postseason (seven times since 2007). Winthrop leads the all-time series 10-5, but has lost the last three tournament matchups.

After suffering a sweep at the hands of the Highlanders last weekend, Winthrop has now lost 13 straight to them as Radford now leads the all-time series 38-29.

Winthrop is 47-39 all-time in the Big South Tournament, but is just 1-4 in the last two tournaments. The lone win came in 2011 at Terry Field when the Eagles knocked off second-seeded Liberty on the opening day. This will be the 13^th time that Winthrop has hosted the Big South Conference Championship. Winthrop hosted in 1997 and 1998, but didn't qualify for the tournament as only the top six seeds made it. The Eagles are 19-17 when hosting and captured titles on their own field in 1991 and 2008 while finishing as the runner-up in 2002 and 2005. Winthrop is seeded fifth for the fourth time in history and is 6-6 as that seed. Winthrop's history as the fifth seed includes a run to the championship game in 2001 and within one game of the championship game in 2003.

The Eagles are led offensively by seniors Chelsey Schoenfeldt and Kathryn Eberlin along with juniors Alex White and McKenzi Corn as well as sophomore Kristy Noble. Schoenfeldt finished the regular season with a .358 average, 15 home runs and 55 RBI (5^th most in the Big South). Eberlin had nine home runs and 37 RBI and was second on the team with 24 walks. White also provided a lot of power with eight home runs and 22 RBI while batting .290. Corn leads the team with a .400 average (6^th in the Big South) and she's had career numbers with 41 runs, 15 doubles, four home runs and 23 RBI. Noble, hitting in the two spot had strong numbers with nine home runs and 32 RBI with 35 runs scored.

During league play, Corn batted .409 with 21 runs, seven doubles, a home run and 10 RBI. Schoenfeldt also had a good go in league games with a .348 average, 17 runs, eight home runs and 21 RBI. Eberlin led Winthrop with 24 RBI in Big South play.

Sophomore Sutton Watson is 15-15 during the regular season with a 3.28 ERA with 135 strikeouts and 50 walks in 170.2 innings.

Freshman Becky Mantel leads the Highlanders with a .302 average and 34 runs and scored five runs against Winthrop in three games last weekend. Senior Morgan Eye is batting .284 with six home runs and 34 RBI. Against Winthrop last weekend Eye was 5-for-9 with four runs, two home runs and eight RBI. Freshman Emily Naegele is also batting .284 as she has nine home runs and 31 RBI on the year. She finished 4-for-7 against the Eagles with three runs, three extra base hits and five RBI.

Senior Jackie Jenkins finished the regular season at 5-21, but continued her domination of the Eagles as she improved to 7-0 all-time against them. Jenkins has tossed 42.1 career innings against Winthrop, allowing just seven runs on 32 hits with eight walks and eight strikeouts. It is likely that is who the Eagles will face in the pitching circle Thursday afternoon.

All of the games for the tournament will be video streamed live but Sunday's Championship game will be live on ESPNU at noon.

Thursday, May 9
Game 1: No. 8 Presbyterian College vs. No. 9 Charleston Southern, 9:00am (single elimination)
Game 2: No. 4 Radford vs. No. 5 Winthrop, 12:00pm
Game 3: No. 1 Coastal Carolina vs. Winner Game 1, 2:30pm
Game 4: No. 2 Campbell vs. No. 7 Gardner-Webb, 5:00pm
Game 5: No. 3 Longwood vs. No. 6 Liberty, 7:30pm

Friday, May 10
Game 6: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3, 9:00am
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5, 11:30am
Game 8: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3, 2:00pm
Game 9: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 4:30pm
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8, 7:00pm
Game 11: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 9, 9:30pm

Saturday, May 11
Game 12: TBA vs. TBA, 10:00am
Game 13: TBA vs. TBA, 12:30pm
Game 14: if necessary
Game 15: if necessary

Sunday, May 12
Championship Game:  TBA vs. TBA, 12:00pm (TV: ESPNU)