ROCK HILL, SC—The Big South Conference regular season schedule comes to an end this weekend for Winthrop softball when it hosts Coastal Carolina in a three-game series beginning with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Terry Field. The final game of the series will be Sunday at 1 p.m. as the Eagles will honor their seniors in a pregame ceremony.
Winthrop has won three straight overall and seven of its last nine as it improved its record to 26-21 after sweeping a doubleheader from Western Carolina on Wednesday. The Eagles are 12-9 in the Big South and in fourth place as well as tied for the third most wins in the league as they try and keep pace to finish in the top four spots. Radford is 12-6 in the league ahead of the Eagles with two conference series remaining. Two teams behind the Eagles that could pass them in the standings or tie with league wins are Campbell and Presbyterian College. The Fighting Camels are 11-9 with a road series at Charleston Southern remaining while the Blue Hose are 9-11 with a home series against Liberty.
Offensively the Eagles continue to get contributions from its senior trio of
McKenzi Corn,
Mel Andrea and
Alex White as well freshmen
Maddie Antone and
Megan Winningham.
Corn leads the team with a .407 batting average and is looking to break out of a mini-slump as she has three hits in her last 18 at-bats and has dropped 37 points in batting average during that stretch. In 2013, Corn batted .471 (a team-high) against Coastal Carolina in five games. She was 8-for-17 with two runs, a home run and five RBI. This season she's batting .426 in home games.
Andrea has a five-game hitting streak as she homered in three straight games at Liberty over the weekend and came up with a game-tying RBI double in game one of the doubleheader with Western Carolina. Andrea then scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Eagles went on to win. She's leading the team with nine home runs and 38 RBI as she looks to become the 11th Eagle all-time to drive in 40 or more runs in a single-season.
White is batting .287 and is second on the team with 27 RBI but has also recently hit a skid at the plate, 1-for-15 in the last five games.
Antone leads the Big South in batting average for league games only at .473 and is coming off a game in which she hit a solo home run and had three hits. Winningham had a two-run homer that provided enough offense for the Eagles in a 3-1 win over Western Carolina. Winningham has 20 RBI in league games and now has 26 on the year.
Sara Allen has been solid for the Eagles in the pitching circle but has also been swinging the bat well with hits in three straight games, two of those games going 2-for-3 at the plate. She has four RBI in her last three games, including a solo home run against Western Carolina in the first game on Wednesday. Allen is 4-0 in her last six starts and is now 12-9 on the season. Sophomore
Dallas King had a strong outing against Western Carolina in which she tossed a complete game and threw only 56 pitches. King is 4-3 on the year and could be a starter or junior
Sutton Watson could start one of the games over the weekend. Watson is 9-7 on the year and 4-3 in league play.
Winthrop and Coastal Carolina are second and third in team batting average among the Big South teams.
The Chanticleers enter the weekend with a 35-14 mark overall and 17-4 league record and winners of six of the last seven games. Coastal has just one series loss in league play and looks to wrap-up a regular season title this weekend against the Eagles.
Coastal is tops in the Big South in power numbers with a league-leading 53 home runs led by Big South Player of the Year candidate Kory Hayden with 17 on the year. Hayden is batting .321 with 28 runs and 51 RBI. Morgan Noad is second on the team with 13 home runs and 44 RBI.
In 2013, Noad was 6-for-14 with four runs, two home runs and five RBI against the Eagles while Bri Chiusano had the most hits against Winthrop with seven.
Big South Preseason Pitcher of the Year Kiana Quolas has lived up to the expectations this season as she's an impressive 22-5 on the year in the pitching circle with a 1.25 ERA and 170 strikeouts to 40 walks in 178.2 innings pitched. Last season Quolas was 2-1 against the Eagles with a 4.29 ERA and 12 strikeouts to five walks in 16.1 innings pitched. She is also a threat at the plate as she's batting .291 with 20 runs, six home runs, and 26 RBI.
Coastal will also go with Ashley Bagwell in the circle as she's 13-8 on the year with a 1.89 ERA and 146 strikeouts to 50 walks in 144.1 innings.
The all-time series favors Coastal as it leads 49-42 and swept the regular season series against the Eagles the last two seasons. Winthrop has won the last two meetings as it defeated Coastal twice in the 2013 Big South Tournament.
Winthrop will honor its six senior's prior to the start of Sunday's game. The seniors that will be recognized are
Natalie Becker,
Paige Hartfield Nolan,
Holli Ryan, White, Andrea and Corn.
