Strong pitching effort pushes Eagles past USC
Down three runs with two outs and a runner at second, April Borchardt’s hit was foul down the third-base line, giving everyone the inclination that she’d have another shot to ignite a comeback.
But Winthrop’s McKenzie Corn had other plans, making a diving catch to give the Eagles just their third win of the season, 5-2.
After falling to USC Upstate over the weekend, the team’s 5-2 defeat to Winthrop was the squad’s second consecutive disappointing outing.
“I think, no question, anytime you have five errors in a game, you’re just giving the other team extra at-bats and extra opportunities,” coach Beverly Smith said. “We gave them too many outs.”
The Gamecocks had five errors — more combined than in the team’s previous four outings.
Furthermore, USC struggled to capitalize on three errors made by Winthrop, as the offense didn’t connect against Natalie Becker’s pitching.
Becker pitched a complete game with six hits, two earned runs, three walks and five strikeouts, being able to close out an inning when she needed to.
“She had a nice change-up — she kept it off balance,” Smith said. “We left 11 runners on, so we certainly had our opportunities to score, but she did a nice job mixing speeds on us.”
The starting pitcher for USC was Julie Sarratt, who’d pitched a no-hitter in her last appearance on the plate. Sarratt kept Winthrop to zero hits until the top of the fourth when Chelsey Schoenfeldt hit a double to spark the rest of the bats on the team.
Two batters later, Brittany Stoudemire’s single brought in a run to tie the game following a run USC had scored in the bottom of the third. Stoudemire then came around to score on an error to give Winthrop its first and last lead of the game.
With two outs left in the inning, Borchardt replaced Sarratt as pitcher. Sarratt allowed three hits, one earned run, one walk and had six strikeouts.
The Gamecocks attempted a comeback in the bottom of the fifth when Laura Mendes reached home after a fielding error by Winthrop’s second baseman, but that was the last run USC scored. A three-run top of the sixth gave Becker enough run support to close out the game.
With the next game looming, Smith’s message to the team was simple.
“We talked about not beating ourselves,” Smith said. “We really feel like we beat ourselves today. We just need to do a better job taking care of the ball and being aggressive when we have the opportunity at the plate.”