AUBURN, AL—Winthrop softball ended its four-game losing streak in a big way as the offense exploded in a 10-1 victory in five innings over Ball State, Saturday afternoon at the Tiger Invitational on the campus of Auburn University.

Winthrop improved to 4-4 on the year as it will finish play at the invitational on Sunday with a 1:15 p.m. contest against Mercer and then will face 17^th-ranked Auburn at 3:45 p.m. The loss dropped Ball State to 4-4 on the year.

"Great rebound today after two close losses Friday," said Winthrop head coach Mark Cooke. "We really got clutch hits to drive in runners. We hit two home runs to really stretch out our lead and added extra base hits to keep it going. Sara (Allen) had a terrific day in the circle. We booted a couple of balls and she had walks but really showed great composure in critical times. I felt we had a great team effort to get a win over a very good Ball State team."

The Eagles led 1-0 heading into the fourth inning when they exploded for five runs and then followed with four more in the sixth inning.

Allen earned the win in the circle as she tossed a complete game allowed one unearned run on two hits with five walks and four strikeouts to improve to 3-2 on the year.

Winthrop doubled its lead with the first batter in the fourth as senior Kelsey Ritter led off with a solo home run to left center for her first of the season and 14^th of her career. Allen drew a one-out walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Shayne Covington, who proceeded to steal second. Then Noble stepped in and homered to center field for her first of the season for a 4-0 lead. Paige Haley extended the lead three batters later when she plated Tara Loken who reached base on a double to left. Antone added an RBI single late in the inning to make it 6-0 and extended her hitting streak to eight games in the process.

The fifth inning was highlighted by some patient at-bats by the Eagles, drawing four walks in a row as Loken and K.J. Uyeno each recorded RBI with bases loaded walks. The other two runs scored on a throwing error off the bat of Antone that allowed Loken and Uyeno to score with two outs.

The solo run allowed by the Eagles came in the bottom of the fifth as the lead-off batter Loren Cihlar reached on an error by Leah Young. Allen walked the next batter to put runners at first and second with no outs and then the runners were moved over on a ground out to first. Sammi Cowger grounded out to Allen, which allowed Cihlar to score from third.

Cowger took the loss in the circle for the Cardinals as she falls to 3-1 after allowing four runs on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 3.1 innings.

Noble finished the day with two hits and three RBI while Young also had two hits and two runs scored.