GAINESVILLE, FL— Winthrop softball fell 7-0 at top-ranked Florida Wednesday night, in its final tune-up before Big South Conference action.
The Eagles fall to 10-17 on the year and will remain on the road as they head to Lynchburg, VA to open their conference slate with a three-game series this weekend. The first game will be Friday at 5 p.m. with the doubleheader scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. Florida improves to 27-1 on the year.
"Probably played as solid of a game as we've played all season," said co-head coach
Mark Cooke. "We put out two freshmen pitchers they hit hard just four times and three of them fell in for hits. Our pitchers battled and the defense behind them played well. I feel we gained a lot of respect for ourselves tonight. We got beat by a very good pitcher. We come home not happy or satisfied but we feel like we got better and that is a good way to end the trip."
After falling behind 2-0 in the bottom of the first the Eagles tried to get on the board as
Megan Winningham led off with a single up the middle.
Madison Templeton pinch-ran for Winningham and moved to second when freshman
Chace Helms drew a walk. Florida's Kelly Barnhill settled down and got the next two batters to foul out before striking out
Kim Ryder on a 1-2 pitch. Barnhill allowed both Winthrop hits as she struck out a career-high 18 in six innings to improve to 9-0 on the year.
It remained 2-0 until the 4
th inning when the top-ranked Gators put three more across, with the second run coming courtesy of a Winthrop fielding error. The Gators added two more in the fifth thanks to a Nicole DeWitt double down the right field line that scored Alex Voss and Taylore Fuller. At that point Helms was replaced in the circle by fellow freshman
Kiley Majette. Helms started the game and battled the nation's top ranked team for 4.0 innings allowing seven runs (six earned) on nine hits with two walks and a strikeout as she falls to 0-5 on the year.
The Eagles did leave five on base as they finished with two hits (Winningha,
Zharne Glover) and
Leah Young extended her streak of reaching base to 17 games.