ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop softball opened up its three-game series against Radford with a 6-3 victory, Friday evening at Terry Field.
The win ends a nine-game losing streak as the Eagles improve to 11-22 overall and 1-5 in the Big South. Radford falls to 17-9 on the year and 2-2 in the league. The two teams will square off in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
"It was great to be at home and get a win," said Winthrop co-head coach
Mark Cooke. "Kiley (Majette) threw the ball extremely well. We hit the ball very well today, I was very proud of the at-bats we had and had a lot of two-out hits. That was a good win, we played a complete game."
Winthrop led 4-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when it added two more runs to give Majette a cushion to close out the game in the seventh.
Morgan Lowers doubled over the head of the left fielder with two outs to get things started.
Paige Haley then walked before
Leah Young singled through the left side to score Lowers from second. As Lowers was approaching her slide into home the ball thrown toward home plate deflected off her and rolled toward the Radford dugout. Haley kept her head up and sped her way around third to score for the 6-3 lead.
The Eagles built a 4-1 lead heading into the sixth inning after trailing 1-0. In the top of the third the Eagles put two across to grab the lead. Lowers singled through the left side with one out, which was followed by a Haley single up the middle. Young reached to load the bases as she beat out a slow chopper to second base.
Megan Winningham stepped in with a chance to tie the game as she grounded to third. Burns, the third baseman, threw home for the force out and catcher Marissa Yow tried to get Winningham at first for the double play but she beat the throw. Haley never stopped running around third and scored as the throw went first to tie the game.
Zharne Glover followed with an RBI single to right that scored Young from third base.
Radford grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second as Whitney Davis singled to lead off when she ripped a shot past
Toni Pancione at third. Davis moved to second on a Casey Burns single and then stole third before scoring on double play by Summer Robinson.
In the top of the sixth inning the Highlanders took advantage of a couple of mistakes by the Eagles to make it a one-run game. Becky Mantel reached on an error to start off the inning and moved to third on a double by Kayla Bishton to left. Mantel crossed the plate on a passed ball and Bishton moved to third. Davis hit a fly ball to right that Lowers caught for the second out in foul territory but Bishton took off from third and scored.
Majette tossed a complete game allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts to improve to 6-8 on the year. Radford's Abby Morrow took the loss as she falls to 10-6 after allowing four runs on 10 hits with no walks and a strikeout in 4.1 innings. Kayla Huffman tossed the final 1.2 innings allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits with a walk and a strikeout.
Young finished the game with a career-high four hits as Winthrop finished the game with 12. Lowers finished with three hits while Glover and
Blake Wallert had two each. Burns finished with two hits for Radford while four other players had one hit each.
