Rock Hill, S.C.— Winthrop softball will close out the regular season with a three-game series at Longwood May 7-8 as it eyes a spot in the Big South Conference Tournament.
WINTHROP at LONGWOOD
WHERE: Farmville, Va. |
Lancer Field
WHEN: Saturday, May 7, 1/3 p.m. (doubleheader) | Sunday, May 8, 1 p.m.
RECORDS: Winthrop (18-34, 10-14 Big South) / Longwood (27-22, 18-6 Big South)
LIVE STATS: Sidearm (all games) |
LIVE VIDEO (ESPN+): Game 3
FOLLOW: @Winthropsoftbal
GLANCE AT THE EAGLES
- Winthrop and Longwood have met 33 times with the Lancers leading the series 22-11 and have captured the last three series
- In the series, 14 of the last 15 meetings have been by two runs or less and eight have been decided by one run
- Batting .236 as a team, which ranks 7th in the league and tied for 5th in runs scored
- As a team the Eagles have been hit-by-pitch a program record 40 times, which breaks the record of 39 set by the 2021 team
- Winthrop leads the league in walks (151) and is 4th in on-base percentage (.333)
- Eagles have 24 more walks than the next team (Campbell with 127)
- The 151 walks are tied for the 8th most by a Winthrop team in a single-season
- McCall leads the team with 23 walks and needs four more to crack Winthrop's single-season Top 10 and become just the second Eagle to rank in the Top 10 more than one season (her 32 walks in 2021 are the 5th most in a single-season)
- Rank second in the league with 96 stolen bases, which are the 3rd most by a Winthrop team in a single-season
- For the first time in program history, the Eagles have three different players with 20 or more stolen bases in a season
- Paige Rivas leads the team with 23 stolen bases while Macy McCall and Ashton Vanhouse each have 22
- Rivas also leads the team in batting average at .340
- Lauren King has been hit by a pitch a league-high 16 times this season, second-most in a single-season (18 is the record set by Sarah Magee in 2007)
- Freshmen Reese Basinger and Sydney Boulware make up the/ starting rotation, combining for 41 starts
- Basinger is 6-6 in league play with a 2.14 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 23 walks in 72 innings
- Has also tossed three of her four shutouts against league opponents
- Boulware ranks 7th in the league in strikeouts with 124 and Basinger is 9th with 121
LOOKING BACK AT 2021
- Eagles are coming off a 26-24 campaign in which the team won six out of the final eight games of 2021
- In 2021 the Eagles as a team finished with the 4th most homeruns (49) and stolen bases (88) in a single-season in program history
- The team set the program single-season mark for hit-by-pitch and the 5th best on-base percentage
- Return 12 players from last year's team while welcoming nine newcomers
- Among the departed are Big South All-Conference performers Ansley Gilreath, Ashley Westbrooks and Madyson Watson
- Westbrooks and Gilreath combined for 67 doubles, 59 homeruns, 251 RBI and 135 walks in their careers
- Watson was the ace in the pitching circle and also did damage at the plate with 17 runs, seven homeruns, and an on-base percentage of .354
- Also gone is catcher Taylor Charlton, who batted .283 with 12 homeruns and 31 RBI
- One of the top returning players is junior Macy McCall, who set the program record for stolen bases in a season with 48
- Her 48 stolen bases were also ranked 2nd in the nation (NCAA D1)
- McCall led the Big South Conference in runs with 43 and her .362 average was second-best in the league
- Other returning starters include Kaitlyn Tucker, Lauren King, and Bailey Warren
- Tucker was 1-of-3 players on the team in 2021 to appear in all 50 games (49 starts) as she made 48 starts at short
- King made 27 starts at second, 16 at third and was 1-of-5 players with 21 or more RBI (21)
- Warren spread out her 44 starts between catcher, left field, right field and the designated player
- Tucker and Warren were both named to the Big South All-Freshman Team
- Warren was second behind McCall in stolen bases with 14 (14-for-15)
- The Eagles were voted 4th in the Big South Conference Preseason Poll
HEAD COACH WINDY THEES
- Head coach Windy Thees is in her fourth season at Winthrop and in her 17th season as head coach of a collegiate softball program
- Has a record of 86-93 overall and 35-34 in the Big South in her time with Winthrop
- 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 17 seasons she's compiled an overall record of 490-431 and a record of 327-339 at the helm of a D1 program
- In her first season with the Eagles the team earned 30 wins, which are the second-most for a first-year head coach in program history
- In her first season she also guided the team to the Big South Conference Tournament Championship game, falling in the if necessary game to Longwood
- 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
BIG SOUTH WEEKLY HONORS
- Bailey Warren, So., DP/C (Mar. 14) – BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK
- Warren batted .626 with five runs, two home runs, three RBI and was 5-for-5 on the bases in the series sweep of N.C. A&T
- Warren also had an on-base percentage of .750 and 1.375 slugging percentage
- Went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI in the series opener against the Aggies
- Went 2-for-3 with three steals and a home run in the finale
- Macy McCall, Jr.., OF (Mar. 18) – BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK
- Batted .438 with six runs, a home run, five walks and two stolen bases in five games
- In the Gardner-Webb series she batted .500 as she started off the series 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI
- Reese Basinger, Fr.., RHP (Mar. 18) – BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
- Went 3-0 on the week with a 0.37 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 19 innings of work
- She tossed shutouts in back-to-back starts in the Gardner-Webb series
RECORD BOOK WATCH
- McCall's single-season record of 46 stolen bases in her first year with the Eagles has her 3rd all-time in program history
- McCall now has 68 career stolen (83 in career) bases as an Eagle and is closing in on the program record of 71 held by Charlene Smith (1989-92)
- If McCall can match her run total of 43 from last season, she'll pull within 25 runs of the program's all-time Top 10
- In two seasons she's drawn 55 walks with the Eagles, putting herself one walk away from entering the program's all-time Top 10
- McCall reached 100 career runs in the second game of the Campbell series
- She surpassed 100 hits in her career earlier this season and now has 132
UP NEXT
Depending on results from the weekend around the Big South Conference, the Eagles could be headed to the Big South Conference as one of the Top 6 seeds in the league standings.
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