ROCK HILL, SC—The 2015 softball season has finally arrived and Winthrop will head to Athens, GA for the 8
th Annual Red & Black Showcase hosted by the University of Georgia as it will open the season on Friday, Feb. 6 against Illinois at 12:30 p.m.
It will be the third straight year the Eagles have opened the season at the Red & Black Showcase and the seventh straight year they've played at a tournament hosted by the Bulldogs. Winthrop will face Coppin State on Saturday at 9 a.m. and then Murray State at 7 p.m. The Eagles will complete their weekend on Sunday with games against Murray State at 11:30 a.m. and then #10/12 Georgia at 2 p.m. The game against Georgia will be available for fans to watch on the SEC Network-plus as well as the ESPN Watch APP.
After weeks of preparation, the Eagles and the coaching staff are excited to finally get the regular season started. "I don't know who's more eager or itching, the players or us," said Winthrop head coach
Mark Cooke. "Opening at Georgia this weekend I think is just a great, great way to open to the season. We get Murray State twice, Illinois and Georgia down there this weekend. That's starting out pretty strong as far as I'm concerned."
The Eagles are coming off a 27-26 season in which the team had one of the most powerful seasons in the history of the program with 48 dingers, which were the 4
th most by a Winthrop team. Cooke and his staff will look to overcome the loss of the team's 3-4-5 hitters from last season, which combined for 147 hits, 76 runs, 28 doubles, 18 home runs and 94 RBI.
McKenzi Corn was a three-time All-Big South selection and batted .400 as a sophomore and junior and finished with a team-high .396 batting third.
Alex White, who manned first base the last two seasons, was a 2014 All-Big South selection.
A couple of quality options to move up in the batting order are senior
Kelsey Ritter and sophomore
Maddie Antone. Ritter batted .252 with 22 runs, four doubles, eight home runs and 24 RBI batting sixth last season and Antone was the 2014 Big South Freshman of the Year after batting .365 with 21 runs, six doubles, eight home runs and 22 RBI batting 7
th.
Sophomore
Megan Winningham will also provide some experience at the plate as she earned a starting role about a quarter of the way into the 2014 season and finished the year batting .288 with 18 runs, five doubles, five home runs and 27 RBI in 35 starts.
One of, if not the biggest strength of the team heading into the season is the pitching staff. All four pitchers from last year's team return, highlighted by redshirt senior
Sara Allen as she led the staff with 13 wins and 165 innings pitched. The last two years Cooke and his staff have had to deal with injuries to the pitchers but senior
Sutton Watson managed to toss 90.2 innings and junior
Dallas King threw 73 innings. Also providing depth to the staff is junior
Bradlee Holeman.
This will be the 11
th time in 12 seasons the Eagles have played in a tournament at Georgia. Cooke talked about why he enjoys coming to Athens, GA. "You get to go down and you get to play some of the best teams in the country in your first weekend out. You can judge your team on what you need to work on from there. The team that won 50 games that year we started out 4-7 or something like that. We went to Georgia and then went to Alabama and we were able to make adjustments and come out of those two tournaments and learn enough about our team to get better."
Winthrop will open up against an Illinois team that was 24-26 last season and 7-16 in the Big 10 as it set a school record for the best start at 8-0. The Fighting Illini faced a strong schedule that included 17 contests against nationally-ranked opponents. The Eagles are 0-1 all-time against Illinois.
Illinois returns four of its top five hitters and seven of its top nine from a year ago led by Kylie Johnson's .383 average. Johnson also had 20 runs and 14 RBI. Of the returning batters, Brittany Sanchez had the most RBI in 2014 with 25 while Remeny Perez had 24 and Jess Perkins and Ruby Rivera each had 23.
Sophomore Brandi Needham will be the likely candidate to get the start against the Eagles on Friday as she's coming off a freshman campaign where she was 17-15 with an ERA of 2.86 and 96 strikeouts to 40 walks. Senior Shelese Arnold also returns as she was 6-10 with a 4.48 ERA in 93.2 innings.
Winthrop will face Coppin State Saturday morning for the 11
th time as it holds a 10-0 all-time mark. The Eagles are led by All-MEAC First Team selection Candice Van Horn, who batted .410 with 38 runs, eight home runs and 19 RBI.
The Eagles will then face back-to-back games against Murray State (Saturday night and Sunday morning). It will be the first ever meetings between the two schools. The Racers are coming off a 32-22 season and return their top five hitters as well as the top two pitchers. Mo Ramsey batted a team-high .341 with 20 runs and 13 RBI. Shelbey Miller and Alexa Becker combined for 61 runs, 102 hits, 18 doubles, 12 home runs and 59 RBI in 2014.
The Eagles will wrap-up against the nationally-ranked Bulldogs on Sunday as they meet for the 21
st time. Winthrop lost 1-0 at Georgia last season on a walk-off error in the bottom of the seventh inning. Allen tossed a four-hit complete game. The Bulldogs return their top six batters as well as the top pitcher from a team that was 49-15 in 2014. There are a number of top returners for Georgia but the top RBI and home run hitter from 2014 is junior Alex Hugo, who had 57 runs, 25 home runs and 64 RBI. Senior Paige Wilson led the team with a .387 average while scoring 50 runs, leading the team in doubles with 18 and also second on the team with 50 RBI.
Junior Chelsea Wilkinson is the only pitcher returning that saw action in 2014 as she led the team with a 2.10 ERA and 33-10 record while recording eight shutouts with 299 strikeouts to 98 walks in 257 innings.
