Winthrop softball back in action Wednesday at home against South Carolina

Following a seven-day break, the Winthrop softball team will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts South Carolina at 6 p.m. at Terry Field.

The Eagles (11-13) are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

Winthrop last played on March 10, dropping a pair of games in a doubleheader with James Madison.

James Madison is just one of Winthrop’s nine opponents on the year that sport a winning record. Winthrop coach Mark Cooke has always tested his team before league play starts and this year is no different. Of the nine teams with winning records, five of them have 15 or more wins and four of them have 20 or more. The Gamecocks (20-9) will become Winthrop’s fifth opponent with 20 or more wins.

South Carolina is the last test for the Eagles before they open up Big South play this weekend in a three-game series against Longwood that begins on Friday.

Since allowing a season-high 15 runs at Auburn, Winthrop’s pitching has been one of the team’s strengths with a team ERA of 2.56. Over those 14 games, the Eagles have used three pitchers pretty evenly. Junior Dallas King has tossed 31 1/3 innings, senior Sara Allen has tossed 29 1/3 and senior Sutton Watson has thrown 28. King has a team-best ERA of 0.67 over that span but is not likely to see action against South Carolina due to injury. King is currently ranked 2nd among Big South pitchers with a 2.25 ERA on the season. Watson is 2-2 with a 2.25 ERA over her last six appearances while Allen is 3-2 with a 4.53 ERA and the two have combined for 38 strikeouts to 14 walks (47.1 innings).

Sophomore Maddie Antone leads the offense with a .390 batting average and is ranked among the Top 5 in the Big South in hits (30), runs (23), doubles (9), RBI (20), and total bases (48). While Antone has led the team with 11 runs and 12 RBI over the last 14 games, sophomore Paige Haley has the best batting average in that span at .395. Haley took over the leadoff role against Auburn for the first time in her brief Winthrop career. Haley has been exactly what the Eagles needed at the top of the order as she has 10 runs, a double, two triples, five RBI and an on-base percentage of .469 in that spot.

This will be the 56th meeting all-time between Winthrop and South Carolina. The series favors the Gamecocks with a 46-8-1 advantage. The last time these two teams met was Apr. 15, 2014 in Columbia as the Gamecocks won 4-2, breaking a 2-2 tie with the winning run in the fourth and an insurance run in the sixth. The last six meetings have gone to South Carolina as the Eagles last win came on Feb. 16, 2011 behind a two-run triple from Teja Durante in the sixth inning.

The Gamecocks, ranked 27th nationally, have won three of their last four games and are coming off a series win at home against Tennessee. South Carolina suffered a home series sweep at the hands of Missouri prior to the series win over the Volunteers but are winners of nine of its last 13 games. Against Big South teams this season the Gamecocks are 5-0 and have outscored them 44-13.

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Winthrop softball back in action Wednesday at home against South Carolina."