FARMVILLE, VA— After dropping its opening game 5-4 to fourth-seeded Charleston Southern earlier in the day, Winthrop bounced back to defeat Radford 5-0 in an elimination game to move on to the second day of the Big South Conference Softball Championship.

The Eagles are now 25-30 overall and advance to play an opponent to be determined on Thursday at 5 p.m. in another elimination game. The Eagles will play the lowest seed among the losing teams in the first two games of the day on Thursday.  

Kiley Majette threw a complete game shutout as she scattered eight hits with three walks and four strikeouts to improve to 14-16 on the year.

"What a great game we played," said Winthrop co-head coach Mark Cooke, referring to the 5-0 win over Radford. "Kiley did a good job getting outs whenever they got runners on. She worked her way out of everything. We put the ball in play a lot. We're happy and very excited to be playing tomorrow. The first game was a tough one to lose, especially when you load the bases in the 7^th inning with no outs and don't score. Besides the first inning I thought we played really well. We fought back and played hard. We got runners in scoring position but we couldn't drive them in."

Winthrop grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third inning thanks to a two-RBI single by Maddie Antone. The Eagles added some insurance in the fifth inning with three more runs. The Eagles loaded the bases with no outs and the first run of the inning scored on a Morgan Lowers single to left. Leah Young reached on a fielder's choice as she laid down a squeeze and all runners were safe for a 4-0 lead. Ansley Gilreath's sacrifice fly to center made it 5-0.

In the first game of the day against Charleston Southern, the game was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the sixth as Georgi Delio stepped in and hit a home run to center for a 5-4 lead. Winthrop loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh, but was unable to drive home the tying or go-ahead run. The Eagles ended up stranding 10 runners in the game.

The Bucs jumped on the Eagles in the first inning for a 3-0 lead. Amanda Matsumoto led off the inning with a double and then two batters later Jade Gandara walked to put runners at the corners. With two outs Mallory Kasinger was hit on an 0-2 pitch to load the bases and then all the runners moved over on a wild pitch to put CSU on top 1-0. Stephanie Bergmann stepped in and doubled to left center on a 3-2 pitch as two runs came across for a 3-0 lead.

The Eagles responded in the top of the second as Ashley Westbrooks was hit by a pitch and then Lowers singled just over the third baseman's head. Young stepped in to move the runners over on a sacrifice bunt and ended up colliding with the first baseman as she reached first base as the throw was off the mark. Westbrooks came all the way from second to score on a heads up base running effort and Lowers moved to third.

Winthrop took the lead 4-3 in the top of the third behind an RBI single from Antone that scored Paige Haley and then Westbrooks followed with a two-run home run to left.

Majette entered the game in the circle at the bottom of the second inning and retired the first eight batters she faced before giving up a bloop single in the fourth. That started a rally for the Bucs as Majette walked the next batter and then hit a batter to load the bases. Majette threw a good pitch on a 3-2 count as she jammed Matsumoto but the grounder to short was too slow as all runners were safe as Taylor Powell scored to tie the game at 4-4.

Majette took the loss as she allowed two runs on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts in five innings of relief. Antone had four hits on the day and three RBI. Lowers finished with three hits while Young, Westbrooks and Haley each had two on the day.