ROCK HILL, SC— The Winthrop softball team will look to bounce back from its weekend series loss versus Radford as it welcomes Gardner-Webb to Terry Field, Wednesday evening for a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. The game will air on the Big South Network.
The Eagles have dropped three of their four Big South Conference series this season and are looking to turn things around as they begin a three-game series with Gardner-Webb. The series is split up as the team's will play a doubleheader at Terry Field on Tuesday and wrap-up the series with a single-game on Wednesday, April 9 at 6 p.m. at Terry Field as well.
Winthrop is 17-18 overall and 5-7 in the Big South as they will host their fourth and fifth consecutive games at home. The Eagles are 11-5 at home this season with four of the five losses coming to league opponents.
On the year the Eagles have batted .319 at Terry Field and are scoring 5.6 runs per game. Senior
McKenzi Corn has the best average on the team in home games at .447 as she leads the team with 14 runs at home and has five of her eight doubles there as well. Defensively the Eagles pitching has held its opponents to a .214 average and allowed 3.8 per game. In six home games against conference opponents the Eagles have allowed 29 runs (4.83).
Over the weekend the Eagles didn't have a hard time scoring as they scored 18 runs and pounded out 26 hits but defensively is where the team had its issues. However, Winthrop allowed the most runs in a three-game league series all season by yielding 20 runs (13 earned) to Radford.
The Eagles gave up six home runs as four of them were two-run shots and the other two were three-run homers which accounted for 14 of the 20 runs.
Freshman
Megan Winningham had a very impressive series at the plate going 7-for-12 with five runs scored and six RBI. She now has 15 RBI in 12 league games played and is batting .357 in conference play. She also leads the team with 11 runs in league games only.
Senior
Alex White, who reached 100 career hits last week, also swung the bat well over the weekend going 4-for-10 with a run and three RBI. She's increased her season average to .315 and now has 20 RBI for the second straight season. Senior
Mel Andrea still leads the team in RBI as she drove in four this past weekend and collected four hits as well.
Corn and freshman
Maddie Antone are both ranked in the Top 5 of the Big South in batting averages. Corn is third at .427 and Antone is 5
th at .371.
Junior
Sutton Watson returned from injury as she made two relief appearances and was the pitcher of record in both games of the doubleheader on Sunday. Watson tossed 1.2 innings of relief allowing nothing and striking out two to end up with the win. She suffered the loss in the second game as she tossed four innings of relief allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
Sophomore
Dallas King had a solid weekend in the pitching circle as she began on Friday with 2.2 innings of relief allowing three hits with a walk and three strikeouts. She then started the first game of the doubleheader on Sunday and went five innings allowing six runs (three earned) on six hits with a walk and a career-high eight strikeouts, but didn't factor into the decision. King's first three runs allowed came after the inning should have been over but was kept alive by a fielding error and she gave up a three-run home run. She is 4-3 on the year with a 2.23 ERA and has 32 strikeouts to nine walks in 50.1 innings. At home this season King is 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA and 25 strikeouts to five walks in 26.1 innings.
It was a rough weekend for senior
Sara Allen, who could be one of the starts on Tuesday. Allen has been very solid for the Eagles this season but allowed 11 runs on nine hits with three walks, three wild pitches, three home runs and struck out 11 in 7.1 innings of work. Allen is 5-2 at home this year with 54 strikeouts and 20 walks in 51.1 innings of work with a 2.32 ERA.
The Eagles are currently second in the Big South with a team batting average of .278 and 6
th in team ERA at 3.20.
Gardner-Webb enters the twinbill having dropped a home series to Campbell, 2-1. The Runnin' Bulldogs won the first game of the series, but fell 6-2 in game on Sunday and 3-1 on Monday in the rubber match.
On the season Gardner-Webb is 11-23 overall and 1-5 in the Big South and is ranked 7
th in the Big South in team batting (.244) and 8
th in pitching with a 4.36 ERA.
The offense is led by senior Samantha Meenaghan, who ranks fourth in the Big South with a .416 average. She's tops in the league in hits while Winthrop's Corn is second. Meenaghan ranks second in the league in triples with four. She also leads her team with 19 runs, 15 RBI and is a perfect 10-for-10 stealing bases. Second on the team in batting is Kellie Beres at .279 as she's got 10 runs and 13 RBI while Megan Champion is batting .269 with 11 runs and 10 RBI.
Senior Jessica Childers is the top returning pitcher for Gardner-Webb this season and leads them in appearances, starts and innings pitched. Childers is 7-11 on the year with 12 complete games and an ERA of 2.90. She has 79 strikeouts to 49 walks in 111 innings pitched. Winthrop could also see senior Ashley Rhyne who is 3-11 on the year with a 4.85 ERA and has tossed 73.2 innings.
Winthrop is 20-8 all-time against Gardner-Webb and swept the season series last year in Boiling Springs, NC. However, the last time the two teams met in Rock Hill, the Runnin' Bulldogs took the series 2-1 with a doubleheader sweep (3-2,5-2).
