ATHENS, GA— Winthrop softball is off to its first 3-0 start since 2004 after it picked up wins over Coppin State and Murray State on Saturday at the Red & Black Showcase hosted by the University of Georgia.
The day began with a 19-5 victory over Coppin State (0-4) in the morning and then the Eagles defeated Murray State 8-6 in the final game of the day. Winthrop will wrap-up play on Sunday as it will face the same Murray State (2-1) team at 11:30 a.m. and then finish with a 2 p.m. contest against #10/12 Georgia.
"We've been searching for an identity and I believe we found one," said Winthrop head coach
Mark Cooke. "They are scrappy, very scrappy. We're playing a lot of players trying to figure out where we are and they are all responding right now. I thought we did a really good job top-to-bottom today. We did everything we need to do to get two wins. I'm excited for the players as their effort has been unbelievable."
The Eagles showed their scrappiness in the fifth inning, which turned out to be a crazy inning for both teams as the Eagles led 2-1 heading into the inning when each team put up four runs. Jocelynn Rodgers came through for Murray State with two outs as she delivered a bases clearing double for a 5-2 advantage. The Racers had tied the game on a throwing error earlier in the inning.
Zharne Glover reached on an error to lead-off the bottom of the fifth and then moved to third on a
Maddie Antone single. Glover then scored on a passed ball while Antone moved to second.
Kelsey Ritter followed with a walk, which brought up
Sara Allen with no outs. Allen was in the circle when the Racers posted four runs in the top of the sixth and she helped her own cause by bashing a home run to right center to give the Eagles the lead again, 6-5.
The Eagles added some insurance in the bottom of the sixth when Ritter and Allen hit back-to-back RBI hits with two outs. Antone singled with two outs and scored on a double to left by Ritter and then Allen drove in her fourth run of the day with a single to right center.
Allen's four RBI in the game were a career-high and she improved to 2-0 in the circle after she tossed 2.2 innings of relief allowing two earned runs on three hits with a walk and a strikeout.
Dallas King started the game as she allowed two earned runs on seven hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
Winthrop took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second when
Paige Haley came through with a two-out double to left center that plated
Kim Ryder and
Madison Templeton.
Murray State got one back in the fourth inning when Rodgers doubled to left center. The Racers got the lead-off batter on for the third time in four innings as Jessica Twaddle drew a walk. She was out at second on a grounder by Maggie Glass, who scored from first on the Rodgers double.
The Eagles game against Coppin State may have started early in the morning but the bats were wide awake as they pounded out 18 hits. Winthrop scored 11 runs in the first three innings and the 19 runs in a game were the most since a 19-3 victory over Wright State on Mar. 9, 2007.
The first inning was highlighted by a Ritter RBI single as Winthrop scored three other runs on two illegal pitches and a throwing error. In the second,
Megan Winningham drove in the first run with a ground out to third as
Lindsay Davis came around to score after leading the inning off with a walk.
Haley Zuehlke, who doubled, eventually scored on an illegal pitch to make it 6-0 and then Ritter came through again with a single but this time drove in two runs.
Coppin State posted five runs in the bottom of the second as the biggest hit came off the bat of Candice Van Horn as she delivered a two-out grand slam over the right field fence to make it an 8-5 lead in favor of Winthrop.
Zuehlke hit a two-run double to highlight the third inning as the Eagles added three more runs and then Winthrop added seven more runs in the seventh inning as
Christine DeWitt had a two-RBI double to right center which was followed by a pinch-hit RBI single by
Tara Loken, her first collegiate hit and RBI. Zuehlke drove in her third run of the day with a single while Antone and Glover each recorded RBI singles in the inning as well.
Sutton Watson earned the win in the circle after tossing 5.1 innings of relief allowing no runs on one hit with three walks and eight strikeouts.
On the day, Antone finished with five hits and five runs while Zuehlke and Ryder each had four hits. Ritter finished with four RBI on the day and also had four runs.
