CONWAY, SC— Cari Wooldridge tossed a three-hit shutout to lead third-seeded Winthrop to a 4-0 upset over second-seeded Liberty and advance to the championship game of the 2010 Big South Conference Softball Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting at Coastal Carolina Softball Field.
The Lady Eagles will now play Radford in the conference tournament championship game beginning at 2 p.m. today. It is the 11th time in school history that Winthrop has made an appearance in the championship game, which is tied for the most all-time among Big South schools. It is also the sixth appearance in the last eight seasons.
"Cari located and changed her speeds well today,” said Winthrop head coach Mark Cooke. “I thought she was phenomenal. We knew we had to play well to beat Liberty. They are a very good ball club. I'm really proud of our kids. To lose three games at Liberty and then be able to beat them twice here in the tournament shows the character of our kids."
Ashleigh Jackson put Winthrop on the board first as she hit a solo home run to left center to lead off the second innings. With a 2-2 count, Liberty catcher Ashley Bensinger dropped a foul ball that kept Jackson’s at-bat alive and she took full advantage of the second opportunity.
Two solid defensive plays by Lenny Stoddart, Lauren Levin and Megan Chapman helped Winthrop keep Liberty’s offense at bay in the fifth inning. Stoddart made a diving catch coming in on a soft fly ball to left field for the second out. Then Levin made a perfect throw to second base where Chapman scooped up the throw and tagged out the runner trying to steal second, which ended the inning.
Pearl Coleshill led off the sixth inning with a double as her bloop hit to shallow left field went off the glove of Kelly Strickland running on to try and make the catch. Coleshill was sacrificed to third by Taylor Wright and Levin followed with a walk to put runners at the corner. After the walk issued by Katie Warrington, Liberty head coach Paul Wetmore made a change in the pitching circle by entering Tiffani Smith to get the Lady Flames out of the jam. However, on the first pitch Cooke called a squeeze play and Ashlee Revell executed a perfect bunt as that plated Coleshill. Revell reached first safely as Liberty did not have a play and Jenna Harbin hustled over to third base. Kelly Blea followed with a fly ball to left that scored Harbin for a 3-0 lead.
The shutout was sixth of the season for Wooldridge who didn’t walk a single batter and had four strikeouts as she is now 17-14 on the year.
Coleshill and Jackson each finished with two hits, while four different players drove in runs.