N. CHARLESTON, SC— Winthrop softball earned a doubleheader split at Charleston Southern by taking the nightcap 7-5 after falling in the first game 6-1, Friday afternoon.

The Eagles used power and patience to earn the win in game two as they are now 15-20 on the year and 4-6 in the Big South while Charleston Southern is 25-16 and 7-4 in the league. The rubber match is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m.

"We were able to hold on for a win in the second game," said Winthrop head coach Mark Cooke. "It's always good to get a conference win on the road. Charleston Southern, they can hit it. We competed today and didn't give up."    

Homeruns by senior Kelsey Ritter and redshirt sophomore Leah Young bookended the victory while Ritter also drove in a run by drawing a bases loaded walk. Then Young was hit on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead. Haley Zuehlke made it 5-0 in favor of Winthrop when she followed Young with a two-run single to center.

Georgi DeLio homered to lead off the bottom of the third inning and cut into the Eagles lead. The Bucs did the same thing in the fourth as this time it was Marci Christian with the leadoff homerun to center. That wasn't the only scoring of the inning as Bergmann provided an RBI single with two outs to cut the Eagles lead to 6-3.

Young's homer in the seventh made it 7-3 for some insurance as Charleston Southern tried to rally with an RBI double from Johnson and an RBI single from Stephanie Baro, but Allen was able to finish out the game to earn her 8^th win of the season. Allen tossed 3.1 innings of relief allowing two runs on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts to improve to 8-6.

Dallas King started the game and tossed 3.2 innings allowing three runs on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

Jennifer Giles suffered the loss in the circle for CSU as she allowed five runs on four hits with a walk as she falls to 9-8.

On the day, Antone had two hits and two runs while K.J. Uyeno had two hits and an RBI.  

Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the second of the first game, the Bucs made the Eagles pay for a couple of errors the helped load the bases as Marci Christian hit a grand slam over the left field fence on a 3-2 count. That put the Bucs up 6-1. Charleston Southern had taken a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Cheyenne Gandara led off the inning with a solo home run to left.

Charleston Southern grabbed the first lead with a two-out single to center by Baro, scoring Christian from second. Winthrop immediately tied the game in the top of the fourth when freshman Tara Loken came through with a two-out, pinch-hit single to center that scored Antone from second.

Gandara started the first game as she allowed one run on two hits with a walk and six strikeouts in four innings but it was Giles that earned the win in the circle after tossing two innings without giving up a run or a hit.

Allen allowed one run on two hits with four walks and three strikeouts in 4.1 innings as the starter but Sutton Watson took the loss in relief after allowing five runs on four hits in 1.2 innings and is now 3-6.