ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop softball begins a six-game home stand Tuesday evening when it hosts Presbyterian College in a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. at Terry Field.
Winthrop enters Tuesday's doubleheader with an overall record of 15-21 and is 4-7 in the Big South. Presbyterian College is 16-16 overall and 6-4 in the Big South. Both games will air on the Big South Network. Not only will the Eagles play their next six games at home, but they'll finish the season by playing 10 of their last 16 at Terry Field.
These two teams have met 20 times as the all-time series record is tied at 10-10. The Eagles captured last season's series by winning the doubleheader as they fell 4-2 in the series finale.
The Eagles are coming off a weekend series loss at Charleston Southern after falling 3-2 in 12 innings on Saturday. Defensively the Eagles were strong and the pitching was solid as it came through several times throughout the series against the league leader in extra base hits and second in runs scored.
Despite batting just .177 in five games last week, the Eagles were 3-2 as the team ERA was 2.50 and the Eagles were only outscored 18-17.
Sophomore
Maddie Antone returned last week against Gardner-Webb and has had a hit in all five games since as she's batting .385 with five runs in that span. She's walked twice and been hit five times as she's sporting a .600 on-base percentage over the last five games. She is the only Eagle batting over .250 in the last week as
K.J. Uyeno and
Zharne Glover each hit .250. Uyeno continues to get on base as she's second on the team in on-base percentage at .485 and also drove in two runs last week.
Paige Haley was just 1-for-17 last week but still second on the team with a .301 average while
Sara Allen is third at .283. Senior
Kelsey Ritter drove in six runs last week and had two home runs as she's now batting .278 on the year with a team-best five home runs and 25 RBI. As a team the Eagles batted just .177 last week and have batted just .194 in the last 10 games.
But the Eagles return home where they are hitting .275 and have outscored their opponents 69-51. Haley has the team's best average at home at .353 while Ritter and Antone are hitting .333 at Terry Field. Antone was 6-for-10 with a run and two RBI in her three games against PC last season. Ritter was 6-for-11 with four runs, two home runs and four RBI. Senior
Kristy Noble didn't see action against the Blue Hose last year but in her career she's 10-for-20 with eight runs, two doubles, three home runs and six RBI against PC. She is currently two hits away from 100 in her career.
Winthrop will likely continue to use three pitchers on Tuesday as Allen along with
Sutton Watson and
Dallas King. Allen has thrown the most innings over the last 10 games with 31.1 while King has thrown 25 and Watson 16.1. Watson and Allen both made their 100
th appearance last week, becoming the 8
th and 9
th players in school history to pitch in 100 or more games.
PC is coming off a 10-2 victory at Liberty, but has dropped five of its last six games, including a series at Liberty and Longwood.
This is a team with a solid lineup from top to bottom as it leads the Big South in batting average at .301 and led by Jill McLean at .400. She's second on the team with 23 runs and leads the team with 16 stolen bases (Tied for 3
rd in Big South). Last season McLean was 3-for-7 with two runs and an RBI against the Eagles.
McLean is just one of six players batting .330 or above. Kersten Legacki is second on the team with a .351 average as she leads the team in runs scored with 27 and is tied for the team lead with six home runs. In 2014 Legacki was 3-for-10 with three runs and three RBI against Winthrop. Over the last two years Legacki has two home runs, four runs and seven RBI against Winthrop. Erin Ruff is batting .337 while Shelby Petik and Erin Taylor are each hitting .333. Taylor is tied with Legacki for the team lead in home runs and is one of three Blue Hose players with 20 or more RBI.
Kensley Loudermilk has seen the most innings on the Blue Hose pitching staff with 87.2 as she's 10-6 on the year with a 3.19 ERA and 71 strikeouts to 30 walks. In six league starts, Loudermilk is 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA and has 40 strikeouts to nine walks. In her career against the Eagles she has a 3-1 record. Sydney Seigler is 3-8 on the year as she's tossed 73.2 innings and has a 3.42 ERA with 32 strikeouts to 19 walks. Loudermilk and Seigler have combined to start 31 of the team's 32 games.
The last few years the series between Winthrop and PC has been a tight one. Winthrop took the series in 2014 with a 15-12 run advantage while in 2013 the Eagles dropped the series 2-1 despite holding a 14-12 run advantage.
