ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop softball suffered an 8-0 loss in five innings in its series opener with Charleston Southern, Friday evening at Terry Field.

Winthrop falls to 13-33 overall and 3-12 in the league while Charleston Southern improves to 19-24 overall and 7-8 in the Big South. The teams will wrap-up the series with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. It is "Senior Day" for the Eagles as the pregame ceremony will begin at 12:45 p.m.

The Buccaneers grabbed the lead in the top of the second with four runs. CSU wasted no time as Stevi Johnson took a 3-2 pitch over the wall in center to lead off the inning. After three consecutive walks to load the bases, CSU got RBI singles from Brooke Lein and Amanda Matsumoto to make it 3-0 and a sacrifice fly by Stephanie Bergmann for the 4-0 lead.

Heading into the fifth inning the Bucs led 5-0 and added three more to bring the run-rule into effect. All three runs came off the bat of Natalie Yonan with her second home run of the season with two outs.
Arizona Pilgrim yielded just four hits to the Eagles as she tossed a complete game shutout with no walks and three strikeouts.

Winthrop's Keleigh Romine took the loss as she allowed three runs on one hit with two walks to fall to 2-6 on the year. Chace Helms threw the final four innings as she allowed five runs on eight hits with two walks.

The best chance for the Eagles to get on the board came in the bottom of the fourth. Toni Pancione singled to short with one out and was replaced at first by pinch-runner Haley Zuehlke. Blake Wallert followed with a single down the right field line to put runners at the corners. Pilgrim got Helms to pop out to short and then struck out Kim Ryder with a called third strike on the outside of the plate to end the inning. Wallert finished the game with two hits while Pacione and Paige Haley had the others for Winthrop.