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BUIES CREEK, NC— Winthrop softball scored seven runs in the final four innings to defeat Campbell 7-2 Saturday afternoon in the rubber match for its second straight series victory in Big South Conference play.
Freshman
Maddie Antone paced the Eagles offensively as she was 2-for-3 with a run and three RBI on the day. Antone supplied an RBI double in the fifth and a two-run triple in the sixth.
"That was just a complete game by our team today," said Winthrop head coach
Mark Cooke. "Our kids went out and competed. After an emotional game like last night it's easy to come out flat but we were not and the kids played so hard.
Sutton Watson threw the ball well and did a really good job adjusting today. Any time you can take a series on the road it's always nice."
With the victory, the Eagles took their second straight series and have won four of their last five games to improve to 21-19 overall and 9-8 in the league. Campbell falls to 23-20 on the year and 9-6 in the league.
Winthrop scored seven runs over the final four innings after not having a single base runner the first three innings. The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning as
McKenzi Corn extended her hitting streak to five games with a solo home run to right field on a 1-2 pitch.
Naomi Stevens had led off the inning with a single to center and then stole second with one out. Stevens moved to third on a wild pitch and then was caught stealing home prior to Corn's home run.
Campbell answered right back as it manufactured a run with a sacrifice fly with no outs to left that scored Brittany Bruce.
Winthrop added two more runs in the fifth as Antone doubled to center field, scoring
Alex White from second base. After Antone moved to third on a wild pitch, she scored on a ground out by
Paige Haley to the right side of the infield. Again Campbell responded with a sacrifice fly as Raven Lee plated Kerstine Womack from third to cut the Eagles lead to one run.
In the early stages of the game the Eagles defense came through to keep the slate clean over the first couple of innings.
In the first inning Courtney Klingler was thrown out at home on a ground ball by Stevens at short. In the second inning it was Stevens throwing home again to keep the game scoreless as she threw out Amanda Daw at home as she tried to score from third on a ground ball.
Stevens finished the game 2-for-3 with a run scored and extended her streak of reaching base to seven games. Corn and Antone each finished with two hits as well. Corn finished with a team-best four hits on the weekend while
Kelsey Ritter, Stevens and Antone each had three hits.
Sara Allen started the game and allowed just one run on three hits with three walks and a strikeout and didn't factor into the decision. Watson earned the win as she tossed four innings of relief allowing one run on five hits with no walks and two strikeouts to improve to 9-5.
Courtney Roberts started for Campbell and was one of four pitchers used as she tossed 4.2 innings allowing three runs on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
Winthrop returns home for its next contest as it will wrap-up its three-game league series with Gardner-Webb on Wednesday, April 9 at 6 p.m. The Eagles already captured the series against the Runnin' Bulldogs with a doubleheader sweep on April 1 and will be going for the series sweep.
