BUIES CREEK, NC— Winthrop fell 13-5 in five innings at Campbell, Sunday afternoon in Big South Conference softball action.

Winthrop falls to 14-38 on the year and is now 4-17 in the Big South while Campbell improves to 23-27 overall and 9-12 in the league. Winthrop will be off for the next 11 days before returning to action for a weekend series at Gardner-Webb May 6-7.  

"We should have been out of the inning 5-4 and booted two balls and that opened the door," said Winthrop co-head coach Mark Cooke. "Highlight of the day was Blake Wallert's grand slam. We just need to get our pitching on the right gear and we'll be good. Now we take a week or so off for exams and hopefully rejuvenate for Gardner-Webb."

Campbell's Bailey Bjorson led off the second inning with a home run to left center and then with two outs Taesha Duboise and Rachel McCollum came through with back-to-back RBI doubles for a 3-0 lead.

After seeing Campbell take the lead in the bottom of the second, the Eagles responded immediately in the top of the third. Kim Ryder singled to lead off and was moved to second on a sacrifice before Morgan Lowers singled to put runners at the corners. Lowers stole second and then Paige Haley came through with a single through the right side to get the Eagles on the board as Ryder scored. Leah Young was hit by a pitch to load the bases and then on a 3-2 count Wallert smashed a grand slam to left field for a 5-3 lead. It is her first career grand slam and second career home run.

The lead was short lived as Campbell took advantage of back-to-back Winthrop errors to open up a 9-5 lead. Keleigh Romine replaced starter Kiley Majette to start the inning and then gave up a leadoff double to Caroline Smith. After being sacrificed to third, Bjorson singled to left center to drive home Smith and make it a one-run game. Bjorson was replaced at first by pinch-runner Perryman, who moved to second on a wild pitch. Winthrop then kept the inning going with errors at short and second on consecutive plays to load the bases with one out. Romine did get a grounder to third as Wallert threw home for the force out. Then Campbell's Duboise came through with a two-RBI double to left, followed by a three-run home run by McCollum.

Campbell extended the lead to 13-5 in the fourth inning as Lizabeth McCurry hit a pinch-hit grand slam after the first three batters of the inning reached to load the bases.

Courtney Roberts started in the circle for Campbell, but it was Katie Baker who earned the win as she tossed the final 2.1 innings not allowing a hit and striking out two. Majette started the game and allowed three runs on seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts while Romine took the loss after allowing six runs (one earned) on four hits in 0.2 innings.

Wallert finished the weekend 5-for-9 at the plate with three runs and six RBI as she had two home runs and a double. Haley extended her hitting streak to four games while Wallert has now reached base in seven straight games.