FARMVILLE, VA—Winthrop softball opened its three-game Big South Conference series at Longwood with an 8-2 loss, Friday evening at Lancer Field.
The Eagles fall to 12-26 on the year and 2-7 on the Big South and will look to bounce back when the two teams square off in a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. With the win, Longwood is now 17-11 on the year and 5-2 in the league.
"I felt like we made some good pitches tonight but it just didn't go our way," said Winthrop co-head coach
Mark Cooke. "Our pitching only gave up a couple of hard hit balls but we're going to come out tomorrow and continue to battle."
Winthrop trailed 3-0 heading to the third when it got one back to cut into the deficit. The inning began with a leadoff single by
Kiley Majette as she was sacrificed to second by
Brooke Ellison.
Shayna Covington then reached on a bunt single that moved Majette to third to put runners at the corners.
Morgan Lowers stepped in and delivered an RBI single through the right side, scoring Majette and putting runners at first and second with one out. However, Elizabeth McCarthy was able to get
Paige Haley to foul out to first and
Leah Young to ground out to first.
Longwood broke open the game in the fourth inning with three runs to make it 6-1. A bases loaded single to the catcher scored the first run and the next two came off the Kaylynn Batten with a single up the middle.
The Lancers added two more in the fifth before the Eagles got another one back in the sixth. The run came with two outs for the Eagles as
Blake Wallert doubled to right center, scoring pinch-runner
Haley Zuehlke from first.
Chace Helms started the game for the Eagles as she allowed three runs on five hits in 1.1 innings. Majette tossed 3.2 innings of relief allowing five runs on nine hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Longwood's McCarthy tossed a complete game allowing two runs on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout to earn the win and improve to 10-6.
The hit for Lowers in the third extended her hitting streak to nine games and Glover finished with two hits on the day and has now hit safely in six straight.
