ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop will step away from Big South Conference action this week as it hosts Western Carolina for a single-game on Wednesday, Apr. 17 at 4 p.m. It was originally scheduled as a doubleheader but changed to a single game Tuedsay evening. 
 
WHERE: Rock Hill, SC (Terry Field / 500)
WHEN: Wednesday, Apr. 17, 4/6 p.m.
RECORDS: Winthrop (21-20, 10-8 Big South) | Western Carolina (16-23, 4-7 Southern)
LIVE STATS: Game 1
LIVE VIDEO: None
FOLLOW: @Winthropsoftbal 
 
SERIES HISTORY

• Eagles and Catamounts have met 17 times with the Eagles holding a record of 11-6 in the series
• Western Carolina swept a doubleheader in Cullowhee last year with wins of 6-1 and 2-1
• The year prior the Eagles swept a doubleheader in Rock Hill with wins of 4-3 and 8-4

 
A LOOK AT THE CATAMOUNTS

• Coming off two wins in a series at UNC Greensboro after having lost 6-of-7 games prior
• Are 4-7 at home this season and 1-5 against opponents from the Big South Conference
• Batting .239 as a team while averaging 4.1 runs per game while allowing 5.6 runs per game
• Led by Hunter Gibbons with a team-best .322 average as well as second in runs (22) and tied for second in RBI (22)
• Erica Hayes leads the team with 24 RBI and Shaina Reed has a team-high seven homeruns

 
GLANCE AT THE EAGLES

• Have won two straight series and three of the last four in the Big South
• Pushed their way up to a tie for third place in the league standings
• Recorded shutouts in three of the last six games
• Batting .270 as a team while averaging 5.1 runs per game while allowing 4.4 runs per game
• Madyson Watson turned in an impressive week going 3-0, two shutouts, a save and posted a 0.98 ERA
• Watson tossed 14.1 innings allowing just 13 hits, issued no walks and struck out 12
• After starting the year 0-2 she's 11-1 since and is a perfect 7-0 in league play
• She was also impressive at the plate going 5-for-12 with two runs, a double, two homeruns and four RBI
• Morgan Lowers continues to lead the team with a .364 average and is tied for the most runs with 31
• Lowers is fourth on the team with 20 RBI while Ashley Westbrooks leads the team with 27
• Westbrooks has reached base in 17 straight games
• Eagles are 8-4 at home this season and have five straight at Terry Field
• The next hit for Lowers will be the 200^th of her career, which would make her the 8^th player in program history to reach that mark

 
HEAD COACH WINDY THEES

• Head coach Windy Thees is in her first year at Winthrop and in her 15^th season as head coach of a collegiate softball program
• Spent five seasons at Georgia State & College compiling a 163-92 record followed by six years at Memphis (172-151) and three seasons at Ole Miss (69-94)
• In her 15 seasons she's compiled an overall record of 425-357 and a record of 258-265 at the helm of a D1 program
• Led Ole Miss to five wins over nationally-ranked opponents that included a 2-0 victory at #1 Florida in 2014
• In 2003 she led Georgia State & College to a runner-up finish in the Division II National Championship
• Thees was a four-year starter at Florida State as both a catcher and second baseman 

 
SCHEDULE

• Eagles have 10 opponents that finished in the Top 100 RPI in 2018 and seven in the Top 75
• There are three opponents that made an NCAA Regional, 11 teams that finished in the Top 3 of their respective conference and five of which played in a conference championship game
• Winthrop had two opponents in the preseason Top 10 with Georgia at 6^th and South Carolina tied for 9^th 
• Georgia is ranked 13^th while South Carolina is ranked 16^th in the latest USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll
• Currently the Eagles have eight opponents in the Top 125 of RPI and six in the Top 70
• There are 11 opponents that have a winning record as of Apr. 7

 
EAGLES AMONG NATIONAL LEADERS

• Brooke Ellison entered the week ranked 5^th nationally in triples and 5^th in triples per game
• She could possibly move up when next week's rankings come out as she hit her 6^th of the season in the 5-0 win over PC on Wednesday
• Keleigh Romine entered the week ranked 39^th nationally in walks
• Lowers entered the week ranked 47^th in the country in hits and had one more in Monday's game at Hampton

 
ROY TABBED BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Bella Roy has been named the Big South Conference Freshman of the Week, announced by the league office Monday afternoon. With the Gardner-Webb series tied 1-1, Roy got the ball in the circle and delivered a one-hit shutout in a 5-0 win. Roy went the distance allowing the one hit over seven innings while walking three and tying a career-best 11 strikeouts. She lost her no-hit bid in the sixth inning with one out but not without the full effort of the defense behind her as left fielder Tori Walker made a diving attempt to make the catch but just missed. Entering the weekend the Runnin' Bulldogs were the Big South's top scoring team at 6.3 runs per game and had only been shut out twice all season (vs. Loyola-Chicago and #15 Texas Tech). Since the weekly honor for freshmen was created in 2017, Roy is just the second Winthrop player to earn the honor as Ashley Westbrooks did so Feb. 20, 2017.
 
WESTBROOKS NAMED BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Ashley Westbrooks was tabbed the Big South Conference Player of the Week on Mar. 25. The junior third baseman finished the weekend series with Binghamton 6-for-10 with four runs, a double, four homeruns, and 12 RBI. She hit three of her homeruns on Saturday to help lead the Eagles to a doubleheader sweep to take the series 2-1. In the first game of the doubleheader Westbrooks hit two homeruns to finish with a career-high seven RBI. In the third inning she hit a three-run homerun to cut the Bearcats lead to 5-3 and then hit a grand slam for an 8-5 lead in the fourth inning. In the second game of the doubleheader she hit a two-run homer to give the Eagles a 7-2 lead in the sixth inning. The 12 RBI in the series pushed her career total to 85, becoming the 16^th player in program history to reach 80 or more in a career.
 
ROMINE NAMED BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Keleigh Romine was named the Big South Conference Player of the Week on Feb. 11. Romine had an impressive opening weekend as she led the team in batting at .571 and tied for team-high eight hits. She had an impressive on-base percentage of .714 and reached base in all five games. Romine began the weekend 2-for-2 with a run, RBI and two walks in the season opening win over Savannah State. In the third game of the weekend she started in the circle and allowed no runs on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts to earn the win. In the same game she had an RBI single in the 3^rd inning for a 1-0 lead. Against Georgia Southern she tied a career-best of three hits to help the Eagles earn a 10-7 win over the host of the tournament. She got the Eagles in front in the first inning with an RBI single to right center and tied the game at 4-4 later on a ground rule double.
 
BIG SOUTH PRESEASON POLL
Winthrop was picked to finish 7^th in the Big South Conference despite returning all but one starter and its entire pitching staff. Longwood was picked to finish first, edging out newcomer USC Upstate by eight votes as the favorite. Radford was picked third followed by Campbell, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Winthrop, Hampton and Presbyterian College.
 
UP NEXT
Eagles get back to Big South play as they host USC Upstate, which leads the league with 14 wins, for a weekend series starting with a single-game Friday, Apr. 19 at 6 p.m. and a doubleheader on Saturday, Apr. 20 at 1 p.m.
 
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