AUBURN, AL—Winthrop softball heads to the Auburn Invitational for another weekend of strong competition as it will play four games.
The Eagles (2-3) were supposed to be in Auburn on Friday taking on Nebraska-Omaha and Western Illinois but the winter storm that blanketed the Southeast with snow forced the team to delay its departure until Friday morning. So the schedule for the Auburn Invite was revised and the Eagles are now set to open on Saturday versus Loyola-Chicago at 11 a.m. and will face Western Illinois later that night at 8:30 p.m. Winthrop will finish on Sunday with a 2 p.m. matchup with Marshall and then against the host Tigers at 4 p.m. The Auburn Invite stayed on schedule to begin Friday but the Eagles and Nebraska-Omaha had to trim down to four games over the weekend.
The Eagles had a solid opening weekend as the pitching staff recorded four quality starts in the first five games and posted a 1.26 earned run average. Junior
Sutton Watson tossed two complete games while
Sara Allen and
Dallas King also threw complete games.
Watson is 2-0 as she earned wins over James Madison in the season opener and a win over North Texas. Allen suffered a tough loss in the circle as the Eagles lost to nationally-ranked Georgia on a walk-off error. Allen held the high-powered Bulldog offense to just one unearned run on four hits. King, who missed most of the second half of the season due to injury, threw well in her first start of the year as she also suffered a loss in a 1-0 game. King allowed one unearned run in seven innings.
Senior
McKenzi Corn, who will play in her 150
th game Saturday morning against Loyola-Chicago, is leading the team with a .333 average as she also has two runs and three RBI. Senior
Mel Andrea is leading the team in RBI with five as she is batting .313.
Junior
Naomi Stevens is the only person on the team so far with a double, triple, and a home run. She's got two runs and two RBI as well.
Head coach
Mark Cooke said before the season that there were several players that are capable of being starters and the opening weekend he did not hold back in trying to find the right combinations, giving several players a chance to earn a starting role. Cooke had 20 different players start at least one game at the Red and Black Showcase in Athens, GA.
Winthrop and Loyola-Chicago meet for the first time while the Eagles face Western Illinois for the third straight season as they have won five straight to now lead the all-time series 7-4. Winthrop won an eight-inning game last season, 2-1, and then won 6-1 in Tuscaloosa, AL thanks to a two-out bases clearing triple from
Teja Durante.
The Ramblers are off to a 1-3 start with the lone win coming against Illinois-Chicago, 8-2. Senior Olivia Bell leads the team offensively with a .400 average as she's also scored twice and has three RBI. Freshman Eric Nagel is also tied for the team-lead with three RBI and two runs. Senior Brittany Gardner has pitched 15.1 innings on the season and is 0-3 and has 18 strikeouts to six walks. Sophomore Ashley Rogers earned the lone victory with six innings in relief against UIC.
Western Illinois is off to its best start in 30 years at 4-0 after picking up wins over Loyola-Chicago, Drake, Eastern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago last weekend at the Rosemont Rumble. The Fighting Leathernecks were tough in the pitching circle on the opening weekend as the team combined for a 1.50 ERA. Sophomore Kacyee Hart is 2-0 with a 0.58 ERA while senior Hailey Bickford and junior Kayla Kirkpatrick are 1-0 as both earned victories in starts. Teagan Walsh and Megg Kelly are off to impressive starts at the plate. Walsh is batting .563 with three runs and nine RBI while Kelly is batting .538 with a run and five RBI. As a team Western Illinois has a .356 average while opponents are batting just .172.
This will be the ninth meeting all-time with Marshall as it leads the series with the Eagles 5-3. Winthrop last faced the Thundering Herd in 2011 in Athens, GA and lost 2-1 in eight innings. It will be just the third time Winthrop and Auburn square off as each has one victory in the brief series. Each team picked up their victory with a score of 1-0. Winthrop lost the last meeting 1-0 on Feb. 20, 2009 in Auburn.
It is opening weekend for Marshall as it is coming off a 36-22 season and is led by sophomore's Shaelynn Braxton (.257 avg., 6 HR, 27 RBI), Kaelynn Greene (.335 avg., 32 SB, 30 runs) and Katalin Lucas (.211 avg., 27 BB, 23 runs). The Thundering Herd lost the top pitcher from 2013 with the departure of Andi Williamson, who accounted for 322.2 innings, a 33-18 record and 364 strikeouts. Sophomore Brittanie Fowler has the most experience for a returning pitcher in the circle as she tossed 19 innings in 2013.
Auburn is off to a 4-1-1 start and led offensively by freshman Kasey Cooper, who hit .474 in the opening weekend. Cooper had five runs, a home run and four RBI. Sophomore Emily Carosone is also hitting over .400 at .412 and has seven runs with five RBI as the Tigers are averaging 7.8 runs per game so far this season.
Sophomore's Lexi Davis and Marcy Harper lead the Tigers in the pitching circle as the Eagles are expected to face one of them. Davis is 2-1 with a 1.18 ERA with 18 strikeouts to four walks while Harper is 2-0 with a 5.25 ERA and eight strikeouts to eight walks.
