ROCK HILL, SC—It was a heartbreaking end for Winthrop softball as it fell 4-3 to fourth-seeded Radford in an elimination game at the Big South Conference Championship Thursday morning.

Winthrop ends the season at 14-43 while Radford improves to 33-25 and moves on to another elimination game to be played late Thursday evening.

The Eagles didn't get much going offensively until their final at-bat as they trailed 2-0 heading into the seventh. With one out, senior Kim Ryder singled to third base to try and get the rally going. That was followed by a single through the hole at first by junior Paige Haley and then Winthrop loaded the bases when freshman Morgan Lowers was hit by a pitch. Two batters Leah Young stepped in with two outs and the last chance for the Eagles as she saw the count go to 0-2. The next pitch was outside but Young ripped it down the line to right and raced around to third for a triple to clear the bases and grab a 3-2 lead.
Radford's Nia Chiles led off the bottom of the seventh with a chopper up the middle and moved to second on a sacrifice. After freshman Kiley Majette got the second out with a pop out to short, Becky Mantel stepped in and lined a 2-0 pitch just over the glove of freshman Brooke Ellison at second base and into the gap. Chiles raced around from second to tie the game on the Mantel single. Two batters later Radford had runners at first and second and Kayla Bishton laced a ball to center field as senior Zharne Glover fielded the ball and threw home for a play at the plate but the throw was just late as Mantel slid across the plate for the walk-off win.

Bishton had given Radford a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as she led off with a home run to center. The Highlanders took advantage of a Winthrop fielding mistake to make it 2-0 in the fourth as Marissa Yow reached on an error. After being sacrificed to second, Chiles came up and singled up the middle as Yow raced around to score.

Majette tossed 6.2 innings allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts to fall to 7-16. Radford's Abby Morrow tossed a complete game allowing three runs on seven hits with two walks and nine strikeouts to improve to 19-17.

Lowers finished with two hits on the day as she finishes the season on a four-game hit streak and the team leader in multi-hit games with 12. Haley's single in the seventh extended her streak of reaching base to 10 games. Glover finishes the season on a five-game hit streak with her base hit in the sixth.