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LYNCHBURG, VA— It was a tale of two different games as Winthrop softball earned a doubleheader split at Liberty with an 11-0 victory in five innings before falling 10-3 in the second game, Friday afternoon in Big South Conference softball action.
Winthrop is now 23-21 overall and 11-9 in the Big South while Liberty improves to 7-39 overall and 2-18 in the league. The two teams will square off in the rubber match Saturday at 1 p.m.
"We came out the first game and hit the ball and took over right away," said Winthrop head coach
Mark Cooke. "The second game we lost our focus and fell behind 5-0 quickly. We will regroup for tomorrow to try and win the series."
Sarah Allen tossed a two-hit shutout to lead the Eagles in the opening game of the doubleheader. Allen captured her career-best 10
th victory in a single-season as she allowed a single and a double with one walk in five innings of work.
Naomi Stevens led off the game with a home run to left center and then Winthrop used a 7-run second to earn its fourth straight league win.
Freshman
Maddie Antone started off the big inning with an RBI single up the middle with two on as
Alex White scored from second. Two batters later Allen singled with the bases loaded that scored
Kelsey Ritter but Antone was thrown out at home on the play as the Eagles led 3-0. Stevens stepped in with a chance to add to the lead and belted her second home run of the game over the center field fence to make it 6-0. Later in the inning senior
Mel Andrea added a two-run home run to right center to make it 8-0.
Allen recorded her second RBI of the game in the third inning with a single to left that scored Antone, who had doubled with one out and moved over to third on a ground out.
In the first game, Antone became the sixth Eagle on the season to reach the 20 RBI mark as she was 3-for-3 with three RBI. Andrea's two-run home run gave her 60 career RBI. It was the fifth time this season Winthrop scored 10 or more runs in a single game and the third time in league play.
Costly mistakes in the first inning of game two allowed the Flames to build a 5-0 lead. Liberty's Katie Zavodny led off with a single to first and then M. Robinson followed with a single to center and then moved to second as Zavodny made it to third ahead of a throw by Andrea. Hanna Nichols got the Flames on the board with a sacrifice fly to right field and then Kelby Allen followed with a single up the middle to make it 2-0.
With runners at first and second, Holly Seiz singled to right and as the runners were moving over to load the bases, a throw from the outfield to third base got away, allowing another run to score. At that point
Sutton Watson was pulled from the game and two batters later
Dallas King got what should have been the final out of the inning but a soft grounder to second base was bobbled by
Kim Ryder, which allowed two runners to score for a 5-0 lead.
The Eagles trailed 7-0 after three innings after a Zavodny home run to right field. The Flames added three more in the bottom of the sixth for a little insurance.
Alex White got the Eagles on the board in the fourth with a two-run homer to right field and the third run came on a solo home run by Andrea as she started off the sixth with a shot to left.
Watson lasted just 0.1 innings allowing five runs (two earned) on five hits as she falls to 9-7 on the year. King tossed 5.2 innings in relief and allowed five runs on 11 hits with no walks and a strikeout.
Liberty's Annah Jo Brittingham cooled off the Winthrop bats in game two as she allowed three runs on five hits with five walks and two strikeouts to improve to 3-18.
On the day, Antone finished with four hits while Allen, Ritter, Stevens, Andrea, and Winningham collected two hits each.
McKenzi Corn was 1-for-6 on the day but has reached base in 11 straight league games while Stevens has now reach base in 10 straight in conference play.
