ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop softball earned a split on day one of the Winthrop Invitational as it rallied to defeat Lehigh 5-2 and its rally came up just short in a 12-10 loss to Albany, Friday afternoon at Terry Field.
The Eagles record evens out at 8-8 as they will be back in action on Saturday with a 3 p.m. contest against Albany and a 5 p.m. meeting with #16/17 Kentucky.
The day began with the rally win over Lehigh. After falling behind 1-0 in the fourth inning, the Eagles bounced back in the bottom of the fifth with four runs. With runners at the corners and two outs, Paige Haley singled to left to tie the game at 1-1. Leah Young followed with her first triple of the season with a shot to right, scoring Haley and Morgan Lowers for a 3-1 lead. Megan Winningham followed with an RBI single to left to bring home Young and make it 4-1 in favor of the Eagles.
Lehigh cut the Eagles lead in half in the sixth when Morgan Decker homered to right center. Winthrop added some insurance in the sixth with an RBI single to right by Zharne Glover that brought Ryder across home plate for the second time in the game. The win was the 15th straight at home for the Eagles.
Dallas King improved to 4-3 on the year as she tossed a complete game allowing two runs on seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Lowers was 1-for-4 as she extended her hitting streak to seven games while Ryder reached base for the ninth straight game, career-highs for both.
In the nightcap against Albany, Winthrop fell behind 12-0 after three and a half innings as it left five runners stranded, including with the bases loaded in the first. Facing the possibility of a five inning game, Winthrop posted six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning behind a grand slam off the bat of Winningham. That grand slam came with the Eagles trailing 12-2 and two outs.
The Eagles added four more runs in the sixth as Young led off the inning with a home run, which was followed by Winningham with her second blast of the day. Later on the inning Toni Pancione doubled home a run and Glover had an RBI single to cut the deficit to two runs. Winningham singled in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to bring the tying run to the plate but Celeste Verdolivo got Tara Loken to pop out to short to end the game.
Winnigham finished the game with a career-high five RBI and had her first career multi-home run game. Pancione finished 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBI against Albany while Young had two runs and two RBI.
Kiley Majette started in the circle for the Eagles and took the loss as she falls to 3-4 on the year. Keleigh Romine tossed 4.2 innings of relief as she and Majette both allowed six runs but only two against Majette were earned and one against Romine.
With the loss to Albany, the Eagles home winning streak came to an end at 15 straight.
