ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop softball begins a seven-game home stand to wrap-up the regular season beginning with a non-conference doubleheader with Western Carolina, Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.
The Eagles and Catamounts meet for the second and third time this season as the first meeting on Feb. 23 in Spartanburg, SC saw Western Carolina win 4-1.
Winthrop is 24-21 overall entering the game and winners of five of the last seven games. Western Carolina comes into the game with a 17-25 mark but has not played since April 13 with its last two doubleheaders being canceled due to weather. The Catamounts are coming off a 9-2 loss at UNC Greensboro in the final game of a three-game series but have won four of their last five games.
The all-time series favors the Eagles 6-3 with Western Carolina having won two of the last three meetings.
This past weekend the Eagles captured a 2-1 series win at Liberty and pounded out a season-high 23 runs in a conference series. Winthrop hit seven home runs and 11 extra base hits total in three games.
Senior
Mel Andrea had an interesting weekend as she was just 3-for-11 at the plate but all three of her hits went over the fence as she's homered in three straight games. She capped off the weekend with a grand slam that gave Winthrop the win in the final game of the series. It was her fourth grand slam of the season and the team's fifth. Andrea is now batting .308 on the year and leads the team with 37 RBI. Andrea is approaching 100 career hits as she currently sits at 94.
Freshman
Maddie Antone is swinging the hottest bat for the Eagles as she was 6-for-10 over the weekend and is now batting .389 on the season. After the weekend she moved into first place in Big South Conference games only with a .473 average in 21 league games played.
Leadoff batter
Naomi Stevens had a good weekend as she started off with two home runs in the series opener at Liberty and finished with five RBI on the weekend.
Although she is in a 2-for-13 mini-slump, senior
McKenzi Corn is batting a team-best .415 on the year and leads the team with 32 runs. In her career against Western Carolina, Corn has six RBI in six games along with four runs.
Pitching for the Eagles on Wednesday will be senior
Sara Allen and junior
Sutton Watson. Allen is 11-9 on the year with a 2.87 ERA and 113 strikeouts to 64 walks in 134 innings. Watson, coming off a short outing at Liberty, is 9-7 on the year with a 3.43 ERA and 72 strikeouts to 27 walks in 83.2 innings.
The Catamounts are led by Kara Salvo's .328 average and 22 RBI. Courtney Price is second on the team with a .302 average and third on the team with 14 runs.
Jordan Garrett, who kept the Eagles bats quiet in the first meeting, leads the pitching staff with an 8-13 mark, 2.97 ERA with 133 strikeouts to 60 walks in 129.2 innings. Courtney Buchanan is 6-6 on the year with a 4.41 ERA and 60 strikeouts to 49 walks in 74.2 innings. Buchanan was the designated player in the earlier meeting this season and was 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBI but did not pitch.
