CENTRAL, SC – Senior left fielder Anderson Thrower went 4-for-4 and freshman right-hander Laini Kosinski won her first career start as 10th-ranked Francis Marion University defeated Southern Wesleyan University 5-2 to earn a split of Friday afternoon's (March 13) Conference Carolinas softball doubleheader.  The Warriors rallied for a walk-off 5-4 win in game one.
 
Francis Marion (22-7, 7-3) will conclude its weekend road trip with a conference doubleheader at Young Harris College on Saturday at noon.
 
In the second contest on Friday, Kosinski (1-0) scattered five hits over 4.2 innings, while allowing only two runs.  She is a native of Manning and a product of Laurence Manning Academy.
 
Following Thrower at the plate, senior third baseman Madalyn White had a pair of hits, two runs scored, and one driven in, while senior center fielder Mikaela Goss went 2-for-3.  It was Thrower's second career four-hit game.  White did had her streak of safely reaching bases snapped at 35 in Friday's opener.
 
The Patriots took a quick 1-0 advantage in the first frame.  White reached on an error to lead off and went to second on an infield single by Thrower.  Both runners moved up one base on a sacrifice bunt, and White then crossed home on an RBI-ground out by senior Jenna Walling.
 
The Warriors (16-8, 5-2) evened the game immediately when right fielder Marissa Moreland homered to lead off the bottom of the first.
 
The score remained 1-1 until the fifth when Francis Marion pushed across three runs. Goss led off with a double to right center, and after singles by White and Thrower, the bases were loaded with no outs.  Junior designated player McKenzie Jewell drove in the tie-breaking run with a sacrifice fly and Walling followed with a two-run double to left center field.
 
Southern Wesleyan got one run back (4-2) in the bottom of the fifth and chased Kosinski as Walling entered to pitch in relief.  Walling retired all seven batters she faced, three by strikeout, to record her first save of 2026 and fifth of her career, tying her with Amy Birch for third all-time in FMU history.
 
FMU stretched the final margin to 5-2 on White's run-scoring single up the middle in the sixth inning.   
 
Chloe Smith (2-4) took the loss in the second contest.
 
In game one, FMU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Thrower singled and later scored on an RBI-double to left-center field by senior third baseman Rylie Webster.  The Patriots scored twice in the second frame without the benefit of a hit.  Sophomore catcher Rylee Gray reached on an error, went to second on a ground out, and took third on a passed ball.  Goss walked and stole second putting two runners in scoring position.  Gray then scored on a second passed ball and Goss crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by White.
 
The Patriots added what seemed to be an insurance run in the sixth. Walling led off with a single and was pinch run for by sophomore Sydney Weaver.  Three batters later, senior second baseman Maddy Golka plated Weaver with a run-scoring double down the right-field line.
 
However, SWU scored three times in the bottom half of the sixth to draw within 4-3.
 
In the seventh, the Warriors had two on and one out when Smith drilled an RBI-single to knot the game, and then when the next batter reached on an infield error, the winning run came home.
 
Walling (15-4) took the loss, as she scattered 10 hits and struck out seven. 
 
Olivia Haag (6-2) was the game-one winner.