ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop softball dropped a doubleheader to a strong James Madison team falling 1-0 and 6-1, Tuesday evening at Terry Field.
The Eagles fall to 11-13 overall and will be off until Mar. 18 when it welcomes South Carolina to Terry Field for a game starting at 6 p.m. The Gamecocks received votes in both national Top 25 polls released on Tuesday. The Dukes improve to 12-6 with the two wins.
"We played a really good team," said Winthrop head coach
Mark Cooke. "We played two scrappy ball games. The first game was a quality ballgame. Sutton (Watson) threw a terrific game. That was a really good team that has played some of the top teams in the country close. I thought our kids played terrific tonight. That's why schedule good teams like that.
James Madison came to the Eagles fresh off a 10-5 victory over Maryland and has enjoyed a Top 15 victory with an 8-2 win over 13
th-ranked Minnesota as well as three other games against Top 25 teams.
The Eagles fell behind in the top of the first of game one as Watson and Megan Good battled in the circle. Watson gave up a two-out single through the left side that scored the only run of the ballgame. Watson fell to 3-4 on the year after allowing the one run on seven hits with four walks and four strikeouts. Good tossed a complete game shutout allowing three hits with a walk and eight strikeouts to improve to 6-0.
The Eagles threatened in the top of the fourth as
Paige Haley and
Zharne Glover led off with back-to-back singles. That brought up
Maddie Antone who ripped a line drive toward third that was snagged by Madyson Moran to keep the sheet clean. Good then got
Kelsey Ritter to foul out, which Haley took advantage and moved to third.
Leah Young ended the threat with a ground out to third.
Winthrop had runners in scoring position again in the fifth as
K.J. Uyeno doubled down the left field line to put runners at second and third with two outs. Haley flied out to left to end the inning.
In the second game, The Eagles were within reach heading into the final inning but a two-run blast with two outs by Jailyn Ford to center sealed the win for the Dukes. Winthrop fell behind 4-0 but got a run back in the bottom of the third. Uyeno led off the inning with a walk followed by a single to right center by Haley. At that point, Ford replaced H. Kiefer in the circle. Glover walked to load the bases with no outs, but Ford was able to keep the damage minimal as the lone Eagles run came on a fielder's choice by Antone to short. Ford didn't allow a base runner the remainder of the game.
"I'm real proud of the effort and I think we're really becoming a good ball club," said Cooke. "I'm real happy with the way we're playing."
Sara Allen started for the Eagles in game two as she suffered the loss to fall to 6-4 after allowing four runs on six hits with no walks and a strikeout in three innings. Watson finished the game allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and a strikeout in four innings.
Ford earned the win in relief to improve to 4-4 after not allowing a hit and striking out five with one walk in five innings.
