ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop softball remained in the state of Florida following its tournament last weekend in Clearwater and is headed to Gainesville where it will take on the nation's top-ranked Florida Gators on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in a single-game. The game will air on the SEC Network+.
Winthrop enters the game with a 10-16 record and has dropped three straight, with two of the losses coming by two runs or less. Florida suffered its first loss of the season on Monday with a 5-4 loss to #3 Auburn and is now 26-1 on the year. The Gators received all 32 first-place votes in this week's USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Coaches Poll.
This will be the first time since March 17, 2012 that the Eagles will face the number one team in the nation. That day the Eagles faced #1 California in Honolulu, HI at the Hawaii Spring Fling Invitational as the Eagles lost the game 7-1. Though not all the results through the years have the national ranking of its opponents, the only other matchup with a top-ranked team is believed to be against UCLA in 1999 in Fresno, CA at the Fresno State Classic. UCLA won that game 9-3.
Winthrop is led by junior
Paige Haley, who is batting a team-best .355 on the year. Over the last 16 games Haley is hitting .404 with 12 runs, four extra base hits and nine RBI. Second on the team in batting is redshirt sophomore
Megan Winningham at .341. She made her debut 16 games ago against Brown and has been a force at the plate ever since. She has 12 RBI on the year, which is second on the team to redshirt junior
Leah Young with 20. Young is batting .273 on the year and has 14 runs as well as a team-high and career-high seven home runs.
The pitching staff has taken a hit recently with numbers and currently has three healthy freshmen pitchers to go along with senior
Dallas King, who is battling an arm injury that is limiting her action.
Kiley Majette has pitched a season-high 75.2 innings and is tied with King for the most starts this year with 10.
Keleigh Romine has tossed 21.2 innings while
Chace Helms made her season debut on Mar. 9 and has since thrown 15.2 innings.
The Gators are averaging 7.0 runs per game while batting .359 as a team. In their 27 games, they've ended the game before the seventh inning on 13 occasions. The offense is led by Justine McLean with a .444 average as she also has 13 runs, six stolen bases and an on-base percentage of .500. Kayli Kvistad leads the Gators with 28 RBi as she's batting .440 with four home runs and a .760 slugging percentage. She is one of five Florida players with 20 or more RBI.
Florida has used three different pitchers pretty equally with Aleshia Ocasio seeing the most appearances with 15. Ocasio, a 2015 NFCA Third Team All-America selection, has made seven starts and is 9-1 with a 0.47 ERA and 68 strikeouts to 11 walks in 59.1 innings. Delanie Gourley is 9-0 with a 0.96 ERA and 87 strikeouts to 15 walks in 58.1 innings. Kelly Barnhill is 8-0 with a 1.46 ERA and 72 strikeouts to 20 walks in 48 innings.
The Eagles last win over a nationally-ranked opponent came on Feb. 24, 2012 against #9 Tennessee in the NFCA Leadoff Classic with a 2-1 victory that gave co-head coach
Mark Cooke his 700
th career win.