ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop softball opened its home schedule with a doubleheader sweep of Humber College, Thursday afternoon at Terry Field.
Winthrop is now 2-4 on the year and will be back in action this weekend at the Carolina Classic hosted by the University of South Carolina. Winthrop will open up on Saturday, Feb. 20 against UNC Greensboro at 3 p.m. and will face Big South foe Longwood at 5:30 p.m.
"It was nice that we got a couple of wins under our belt," said Winthrop co-head coach
Mark Cooke. "It's the first time we really hit the ball hard this season. We used power to win the first game and used our speed and defense to win the second one. Dallas (King) and Kiley (Majette) were sharp in their performances. Overall it was a good day."
Leah Young drove in six runs on the afternoon including a career-high five in the first game of the doubleheader to lead the Eagles to an 8-1 victory. Young belted home runs in her first two at-bats for her first career multi-home run game.
Young's three-run home run highlighted a five-run first for the Eagles in game one.
Shayna Covington reached on an error to start the game and then stole second followed by a walk by
K.J. Uyeno to put runners at first and second. That's when Young stepped up and hit an 0-1 pitch over the fence in center. That was followed with a home run by freshman
Toni Pancione for a 6-0 lead.
The Eagles scored two more in the second inning as Young hit a two-run shot with one out.
King tossed 6.1 innings allowing just one hit and striking out a career-best 12 batters and walked just one as she improved to 1-2.
In the second game of the doubleheader the Eagles scored four runs in the final two innings to secure a 6-1 win as freshman Majette earned her first collegiate win by tossing a completed game. Majette allowed one run on two hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.
Winthrop jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning when
Blake Wallert and
Brooke Ellison each stole home. Humber College responded with a run in the top of the third on an RBI single from Bonnie Gillingham.
On the day Young finished with three hits, two runs and six RBI while Wallert finished with two runs and three hits.
