ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop softball will host five home games this week beginning with a single-game against Presbyterian College On Tuesday followed by a single-game against Gardner-Webb on Wednesday.
The Eagles are 20-23 overall and 9-9 in the Big South as they will face PC on Tuesday at 4 p.m. and Gardner-Webb on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The contest with the Blue Hose was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, April 15 but was moved due to inclement weather. Wednesday's contest against Gardner-Webb was schedule to be a road contest but was moved due to construction and upgrades to the Runnin' Bulldogs softball facility.
Winthrop is coming off a split doubleheader at Radford this past weekend as the rubber match on Sunday was rained out and will not be made up. The Eagles have won five of their last seven games.
Tuesday's game will determine which team takes the regular season series after the two teams split a doubleheader on April 7. Winthrop captured the first game 4-3 before falling 5-3 in a rain-shortened five inning game.
The Eagles are currently sixth in the Big South standings while Presbyterian College is third. The Blue Hose are 20-17 overall and 9-6 in the league while Liberty is 4
th at 12-9 and Charleston Southern is 5
th at 9-8. This is a big week for the Eagles, who have the opportunity to work their way into the top four of the league standings.
Sophomore
Maddie Antone continues to lead the team in batting with a .381 average while she also has a team-high 33 runs and is second in RBI with 27. Senior
Kelsey Ritter leads the team in RBI with a career-high 31 and a .280 batting average. She's also set career-highs with 10 doubles and tied her career-high in home runs last weekend with her eighth of the season and 21
st of her career.
The Eagles will throw a combination of senior's
Sara Allen and
Sutton Watson along with junior
Dallas King. Allen is 10-8 on the year with a 4.16 ERA and 82 strikeouts to 68 walks in 114.1 innings. Watson is 5-6 with a 3.73 ERA, four saves and 77 strikeouts to 24 walks in 86.1 innings. King is 4-9 with a team-best 3.20 ERA with 62 strikeouts to 29 walks in 81 innings.
PC, ranked first in the league with a team batting average of .304, has a balanced offense led by Hope Rogers as she is hitting .372 with 14 doubles and 24 RBI. Shelby Petik leads the team in RBI with 30 and is batting .360 while Kersten Legacki has 25 RBI and Erin Taylor has driven in 21.
Kensley Loudermelk and Sydney Seigler have each started 18 games for the Blue Hose. Loudermelk is 12-6 with a 3.19 ERA and 82 strikeouts to 38 walks. Seigler is 4-9 with a 3.56 ERA and 38 strikeouts to 22 walks.
Gardner-Webb is sitting in 9
th place but just two wins out of seventh as it looks to avoid a sweep and move up the standings.
The Runnin' Bulldogs are coming off a series at Campbell in which they won the first game 7-3 before dropping the next two 5-9, 3-2.
The offense is led by Kellie Beres with 28 runs, 16 RBI and 11 stolen bases while batting .407. He average is third best in the league. Rachel Cumiskey leads the team with 29 RBI followed by Scarlett Harris with 28. Cumiskey is batting .344 and has seven home runs while Harris is batting .323 with 15 runs, 10 doubles and eight home runs.
Summer Darnell and Ashley Wark have combined to start 36 of the team's 41 games in the pitching circle. Darnell is 9-12 with a 4.59 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 126.2 innings while Wark is 2-13 with a 5.17 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 89.1 innings.
