AUBURN, AL—Winthrop softball opened the Tiger Invitational hosted by Auburn with one-run losses to Eastern Illinois and Georgia State, Friday afternoon.

Winthrop started the day with a 4-3 loss to Eastern Illinois in the morning and then fell 8-7 to Georgia State in the afternoon. The Eagles have now lost four in a row and are now 3-4 on the year. Eastern Illinois improved to 3-3 on the year while Georgia State is now 1-1.

"I thought we did pretty well considering we didn't practice all week," said Winthrop head coach Mark Cooke, referring to the majority of his team being sick and recovering throughout the week. "They're playing hard. I thought Sara (Allen) pitched well the in the first game. Sutton (Watson) threw well outside of the home runs she gave up and I felt Dallas (King) pitched good in relief."

In the game against Georgia State, the Eagles led 3-0 after the first as Allen provided a two-run single that scored Maddie Antone and Kelsey Ritter. Antone reached on a double and Ritter drew a four-pitch walk. The third run came on a passed ball as Leah Young scored from third.

Georgia State did all of it damage in the 4-6^th innings as it pulled within a run in the fourth and then took a 6-3 lead in the top of the fourth. Megan Litumbe provided a two-run home run in the fourth inning with one out and then made it 6-3 with another two-run homer in the fifth.

The Eagles fought their way back to regain the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, 7-6. Paige Haley got things going with a lead-off double and then scored when Zharne Glover reached on an error. Antone followed with a double to left center that put runners and second and third. At that point GSU switched pitchers but the Eagles continued their comeback as Ritter immediately came through with an RBI single. Two batters later it was Allen with an RBI double to put runners at second and third with one out. Kim Ryder gave the Eagles the lead with an RBI groundout that brought Ritter home from third.

The lead didn't last long as GSU scored two runs with two outs, which including the eventual game-winning hit from Litumbe as she singled down the left field line to finish with five RBI in the game. GSU took advantage of an error that would have been the second out and two batters later the tying run came in on a sacrifice fly.

King tossed 1.1 innings of relief and ended up with the loss as she is now 0-1 on the year. Watson started the game and tossed 4.2 innings allowing six runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Antone finished the game against GSU 2-for-4 as she extended her hitting streak to seven games.

In the loss to Eastern Illinois there were only two innings of production by each team as the Panthers got all four of their runs in the bottom of the fifth and Winthrop scored all three runs in the top of the seventh.

Allen tossed 4.1 innings of no-hit ball before running into trouble against EIU. The first run came on an RBI single down the right field line by Ashlynne Paul and then Andrea Roberts went down the right field line as well that plated two runs.

Like it's done a few times early on this season, Winthrop put up a fight to the end as Antone led off the 7^th with a single and then Ritter reached on an error that put runners at second and third. Then Young stepped in and picked a good time for her first collegiate home run with a 3-run blast to center field.

Allen took the loss in the circle and falls to 2-2 on the year after allowing all four runs on four hits with five walks and six strikeouts.

On the day Antone led the team with three hits while Ritter and Allen each had two. Ritter also scored three runs while Antone and Young each scored twice.

Winthrop will be back in action at the Tiger Invitational on Saturday when it faces Ball State at 1:15 p.m.