Winthrop’s Shriver named Big South lacrosse freshman of the week

Winthrop women’s lacrosse player Kristen Shriver has been named the Big South freshman of the week for her performance against Presbyterian on Saturday.

It’s the second such award this season for Shriver, an attacker from Salisbury, Md.

Against the Blue Hose, Shriver finished with six points on two goals and four assists. She notched all four assists in the first half with her two goals coming in the second. She also picked up two ground balls, won two draw controls and forced two turnovers.

Shriver is currently third on the team with 22 goals and second in assists with 15. She leads all Big South freshmen in assists and is tied for second amongst conference freshmen in goals scored.

The Eagles return to the field Friday when they travel to Buies Creek, N.C., for a 3 p.m. game against Campbell.

Eagles tie for fifth: The Eagles tied for fifth place with Ohio State and N.C. State at the Gary Koch Invitational in Gastonia, N.C., which concluded on Tuesday at the Gaston Country Club.

Winthrop finished the 15-team event with a 54-hole score of 877 (291-300-286). It was the final regular season tournament for the Eagles who will prepare for the April 20-22 Big South championships at The Patriot at Grand Harbor near Ninety Six. Florida State captured the team championship by finishing at 22-under par 842 over the par 72, 7,042-yard layout. FSU won by 10 shots over second place Auburn and by 16 shots over third place Kentucky, who served as co-hosts for the event.

The Eagles were led by sophomore Zach Seabolt who fired at 3-under 213 (66-74-73) to tie FSU’s Cristobal Del Solar. Seabolt, who entered the tournament ranked 25th in the nation by Golfstat, was tied for first place with Del Solar after the opening round on Monday after shooting 6-under.

Winthrop senior and Gastonia native Taylor Dickson made a big jump in the final round as he shot 6-under 66 to move from 24th place into a tie for 14th in the final standings at 216 (76-74-66). Junior Nick Eberhardt, a Fort Mill native, tied for 52nd at 226 (76-76-74) while sophomore Bradley Kauffman shot 227 (78-76-73) and tied for 55th. Rounding out the Eagle performances was junior Christian Sease who tied for 60th place at 228 (73-78-77).

Presbyterian 3-5, Winthrop 4-3: The Eagles split a rain-shortened doubleheader with Presbyterian, College as it captured the first game 4-3 and dropped the nightcap 5-3 in five innings in Rock Hill.

The second game was called in the bottom of the sixth due to inclement weather and made official after five innings.

The Eagles (16-22, 5-8) had runners at first and second with no outs in the bottom of the sixth when the game was called.

Winthrop will be back in action this weekend as it hosts Campbell in a three-game series starting with a doubleheader on Friday at 4 p.m.

“We played two pretty decent ballgames today,” said Winthrop coach Mark Cooke, who is now two wins away from 700 at Winthrop. “We just didn’t’ execute in the pitching circle when we needed to today and get outs. Our team ran the bases well, put the ball in play and Kelsey Ritter had a big home run. We just need to finish games.”

In the first game, Ritter gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first as she hit a line drive that just cleared the fence in center field. The home run was her sixth of the season and 19th of her career as she moved all alone into 7th on the program’s all-time list.

Maddie Antone made it 4-0 in the second inning with an infield single that plated Zharne Glover and saw Paige Haley hustle around third for the second run. Antone laced a chopper to the left of the pitcher and it deflected off the end of the glove toward the hole on the right side and Antone was able to reach first safely. One of the PC fielders tried to dive and tag Antone and as she did Haley came around to score.

Presbyterian (17-17, 7-6) got one back in the top of the third inning as Courtney Lawton drew a leadoff walk. Blaire Miller followed with a single through the right side that was just out of the reach of first baseman Leah Young. Jill McLean tried to sacrifice the runners over but ended up reaching first as Kim Ryder’s throw to first was in the dirt and bounced off Young. That allowed Lawton to round third and score from second to get the Blue Hose on the board.

A two-run home run in the top of the fifth pulled the Blue Hose within a run at 4-3 as Erin Ruff blasted a shot to right center.

Sara Allen (9-6) tossed 4 1/3 innings allowing three runs on four hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Sutton Watson tossed the final 2 2/3 innings of the game allowing no runs or hits with no walks and three strikeouts to earn her fourth save of the season.

In the nightcap, Winthrop grabbed an early 3-0 lead in the third as it took advantage of a throwing error.

With two outs, K.J. Uyeno walked to get things going as Antone followed with a walk and Ritter’s infield single loaded the bases. Young dropped a bunt down as the pitcher fielded it and her throw to first was in the dirt and off the first base bag. Uyeno and Antone both came around to score as Ritter moved to third. The Blue Hose didn’t get the ball back to their pitcher and Ritter caught the infield sleeping as she raced home for the third run of the inning.

The Blue Hose came back and tied the game immediately in the top of the fourth behind a two-run double by Hope Rogers and Miller walking with the bases loaded.

Eagles pitching ran into trouble again in the fifth after issuing a leadoff walk to Shelby Petik. That was followed by a double to left from Ruff to put runners at second and third. Rogers followed by ripping a shot to second base that bounced off the foot of Ryder at second base and deflected toward short for an RBI infield single. Kersten Legacki followed that with a squeeze bunt as Ruff scored and Legacki was safe at first for a 5-3 lead.

Kensley Loudermilk earned the win for PC as she tossed five innings allowing three unearned runs on four hits with three walks and two strikeouts to improve to 11-6 on the year.

Allen took the loss for the Eagles in relief as she allowed one run on two hits with two walks and a strikeout in 2/3 innings of work.

On the day, Antone finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run as she extended her hitting streak to eight games. Haley had three hits on the day while Ritter and Young each had two.

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Winthrop’s Shriver named Big South lacrosse freshman of the week."