ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop will look to end a two-game skid as it heads to Mt. Pleasant, SC for the Cougar Classic beginning Friday, Feb. 20 when it takes on Bowling Green at 1 p.m.
Winthrop was originally schedule to play five games at the Cougar Classic, hosted by the College of Charleston, but the forecast of inclement weather forced schedule changes and each team had a game dropped. Saturday's opponents are the same but the Eagles will now face Pittsburgh at 5:30 p.m. and Appalachian State at 8 p.m. The Eagles will wrap-up play on Sunday with a single-game at 11 a.m. against Massachusetts.
The Eagles are 4-6 on the year and have dropped two straight as they hope to fix that on Friday against Bowling Green. This will be the 4
th meeting between the two schools with the last one coming on Mar. 9, 2012 as the Eagles held off the Falcons, 9-8.
Last weekend at the Tiger Invitational hosted by Auburn University, the Eagles swung the bats well but the pitching and fielding had some issues that led to big run innings by their opponents. The mistakes led to big innings for Winthrop's opponents as
Eastern Illinois had four runs in the 5
th inning of a 4-3 win. Georgia State had a 4-run 5
th in as the Eagles lost 8-7 and Mercer had five runs in the first and four in the second.
The veteran staff of senior's
Sara Allen and
Sutton Watson along with junior
Dallas King and sophomore
Bradlee Holeman look to get back on track, but it won't be an easy task. The combined record of the opponents Winthrop will face this weekend is 18-8 and two of the teams are batting .321 or better as a team. Allen is 3-2 on the year with a 6.67 ERA in four starts and eight appearances. She reached 200 career strikeouts against Mercer.
Last weekend the Eagles batted .278 after an opening weekend of .307 as they averaged 5.6 runs, but as a team they allowed 7.6. Sophomore
Maddie Antone continues to swing it well to start the 2015 season as she's riding a 10-game hitting streak.
She continues to lead the Big South in runs scored with 12, hits with 16 and is tied for 7
th in RBI with eight. She was 8-for-17 at the Tiger Invitational.
Allen has the second best average on the team at .400 as she's tied for the team lead in RBI with eight. She has an on-base percentage of .500. Sophomore
Haley Zuehlke is hitting .364 with three runs and three RBI in three starts. Senior
Kelsey Ritter returned to the lineup after missing the game against Georgia and she had five runs and four RBI at the Tiger Invitational as she is tied with a team-high eight RBI. Senior
Kristy Noble hit .375 last weekend in three starts (4 games) and belted her 17
th career home run against Ball State to move into all alone at seventh on Winthrop's all-time list.
Bowling Green is 3-1 so far this season with wins over Robert Morris, Canisius and Niagara. Leading the team with a .444 batting average is Molly Holliday as she also has four runs while Trista Mokienko is batting .417 with three runs, a home run and two RBI. Leading the team in RBI is Aspen Searle with six while eight different players have at least two RBI. Braiden Dillow is 2-0 in the circle with a 0.95 ERA in 14.2 innings of work.
On Saturday the Eagles will face a Pitt team that is off to a 10-0 start and hitting the ball extremely well with a team average of .388. The Panthers have averaged 7.0 runs per game while allowing 2.2 and opponents are hitting just .214 against them. Savannah King has had a strong start in the circle with a 6-0 mark and 0.54 ERA in 33.0 innings with 14 strikeouts to seven walks. She was recently named the ACC Pitcher of the Week. This will be the 12
th meeting all-time between Winthrop and Pitt as the Panthers lead the series 6-5. These two teams last met in 2010 as Pitt won 4-2 and 4-1 at the JMU/Days Inn Invitational.
Winthrop and Appalachian State meet for the 21
st time and the first time since April 9, 2013 when the Eagles dropped a double-header 11-8 and 9-7 in Boone, NC. The Mountaineers are 3-4 on the year with wins over Presbyterian College, North Carolina and Evansville. Appalachian State opened the season at a tournament in Auburn, AL and fell 20-9 in the season opener but has been in some competitive games since. Offensively the Mountaineers are led by Dani Heichen's .333 average while Caroline Chambers is also batting .333 with four runs, two home runs and five RBI. Cara Parker is also tied for the team lead in RBI with five.
Three pitchers have at least 10.2 innings pitched on the year led by Vanessa Ciocatto's 18.1 innings of work. Ciocatto has yet to factor into a decision and has the best ERA on the team at 3.44 in six appearances and three starts. Katherine Johnson has four starts and six appearances as she's 2-4 on the year.
This will be the first ever meeting between Winthrop and Massachusetts. The Minutewomen are 2-3 on the year with wins over Stephen F. Austin and DePaul. Quianna Diaz-Patterson leads the team with a .467 average with six runs, three doubles, two home runs and five RBI. Tara Klee is also batting over .400 at .429 on the year with five runs, three home runs and seven RBI. UMASS has hit seven home runs so far and is averaging 5.0 runs per game. The Minutewomen have featured two pitchers through the first five games as Meg Colleran has made two starts and four appearances, posting a 1-1 record and 1.69 ERA. Caroline Raymond has made three starts and is 1-2 with a 5.82 ERA.
