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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois softball is set compete in the three-day Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, being hosted by the defending champion UT Martin Skyhawks, who finished as the 2010 regular-season league champions.

The Panther's 47-game regular-season has been leading up to this point of the year as Eastern earned the fourth seed in the six-team, double-elimination tourney, besting the preseason poll of a sixth place ranking.

The winner of the tournament earns the OVC's automatic berth to the NCAA Regional play. Last season, UTM earned the bid, pulling out an upset of regular-season champion Jacksonville State. However, JSU would earn an at-large NCAA bid.

TOURNAMENT COVERAGE: For a charge, complete streaming video coverage of the tourney may be followed via OVCsports.tv.

Free Live Stats are also planned to be available. Links to both can be accessed via EIUpanthers.com or OVCsports.com.

EIU TOURNAMENT HISTORY: This will be Panther softball's 11th appearance in the end-of-season event. EIU holds an all-time record in tourney play of 23-20, and have only missed participating four times since joining the league in 1997. Panther head coach Kim Schuette sports a combined 2-6 championship record heading into this week's tourney, which includes finishing as the #3-seed back in 2006 and a #4-seed in 2008. Unfortunately, the Panthers have been eliminated in consecutive games the last two seasons, as both tourneys were previously hosted by Jacksonville State.

The Panthers ended up as the tournament runner-up finishers back in 1997, 1998, and 1999, battling back from the loser's bracket in both 1997 and 1998 to push the eventual winner, SEMO, to the limit.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: The complete schedule for the 2010 OVC Tourney is as follows:

Wednesday, May 13
... at UTM's Bettye Giles
Gm 1 - #3-MOR vs. #6-TTU ... 11 am
Gm 2 - #4-EIU vs. #5-MUR ... 1:30 pm
Gm 3 - #2-JSU vs. Gm 1 winner ... 4 pm
Gm 4 - #1-UTM vs. Gm 2 winner - 6:30 pm

Thursday, May 14
... at UTM's Bettye Giles
Gm 5 - Gm 2 loser vs. Gm 3 loser ... 11 am
Gm 6 - Gm 1 loser vs. Gm 4 loser ... 1:30 pm
Gm 7 - Gm 3 winner vs. Gm 4 winner ... 4 pm
Gm 8 - Gm 5 winner vs. Gm 6 winner ... 6:30 pm

Friday, May 15
... at UTM's Bettye Giles
Gm 9 - Gm 7 loser vs. Gm 8 winner ... 11 am
Gm 10 - Gm 7 winner vs. Gm 9 winner ... 1:30 pm
... if necessary Game 11 ... 4 pm

THE WEATHER FORECAST FOR MARTIN, TENNESSEE (via weather.com): The weather prediction for Thursday, Friday and Saturday calls for highs in the upper 80ss on Thursday and lower 70's for Friday and Saturday. Isolated thunderstorms are in the mix for Thursday, while potential scattered storms are possibly for Friday and Saturday.

PANTHERS GO 1-2 TO MURRAY STATE IN HOME FINALE WEEKEND: EIU had a two-week break from action, due to consecutive weekend rainouts which included historic flooding in the Nashville, Tennessee area in early May which cancelled the entire weekend series at Tennessee State. But the Panthers returned to the field last weekend as EIU played a three-game home series with Murray State. The Panthers won the first game, 4-1, but dropped the nightcap of that twinbill, 6-3, and then lost the Sunday rubber game, 7-1.

It was the first-ever meetings between the Panthers and Racers, as Murray State finally joined the rest of the OVC by sporting their first intercollegiate softball team this season. Most of the Racer squad are made up of freshman and junior college transfers, including several from nearby Lake Land College in Mattoon.

In the three-game series with Murray, senior Megan Nelson led the squad in the three games, going 4-for-10 at the plate for a .400 average, touching home plate three times and stealing two bases.

Junior Kiley Holtz and senior Denee' Menzione followed with 3-for-8 and 3-for-9 plate performances, respectively, with Holtz nailing a solo homer and adding three RBI, while Menzione nailed a two-RBI double. Freshman Melise Brown matched Nelson with two stolen bases, while sophomore Jen Saucier added a bag theft of her own.

Junior Amber May went 1-1 on the weekend, winning the first game but dropping the rubber matchup. She finished with a 3.50 ERA, allowing 12 hits, seven earned runs, but striking out eight Racers and walking seven. Freshman Natalie Wunderlich relieved fellow newcomer Hailie Ray in the circle in the second game, off six innings of work, where she registered three Ks and six BBs.

SENIORS EARN RECOGNITION: Three Panthers received a special pre-game honor this past Sunday, in EIU's home finale versus Murray State. Eastern standouts, Angie Danca (a five-year senior), Denee' Menzione and Megan Nelson each received kudos for their contribution to the Panther program, and were honored alongside their parents. Unfortunately, Murray State spoiled the day's festivities, winning the game, 7-1, on a picture-perfect day for softball.

Year in and year out, these three seniors have helped lead the Panther softball program in its continued improvement. That includes marking their name in the EIU record books numerous times, being excellent role models both on the field and in the classroom, and helping the squad advance to the end-of-season OVC Tournament four out of the last five seasons.

QUICK LOOK AT THE OVERALL PANTHER STAT LEADERS: Menzione continues to lead all EIU players with a .333 percentage mark behind her 39-for-1117 plate mark. Her seven home runs not only lead the squad, but pushes her career tally to 26, which is a new EIU career mark. She has 15 extra-base hits, which include eight doubles, while earning 17 RBI and touching homeplate on her own a team-high 25 times. She's a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen bases and owns an nice .581 slug percentage.

Holtz is currently hitting .289 and leads EIU with 33 RBI shots. One of her six homers on the season was a grand slam against APSU, which was the first four-run bomb by a Panther this season. She added another solo homer versus Murray State just this past weekend.

A fixture in the center field, Danca has ripped the lone triple this season and is hitting .252 behind a 33-for-131 plate mark. She has nailed three twobaggers as well and is 10-for-11 in bag thefts.

Brown leads the Panthers with 17 (of 21) total stolen bases. The newcomer has played in the left field spot in 43 games this season, where she has connected on four extra-base hits on the year, including three doubles and nailing one of the six homeruns that EIU smashed at arch rival SEMO.

In the circle, May leads the three-player bullpen with her 15-14 overall and 2.39 ERA mark, off 193.1 innings of work, where she has 22 complete games, starting 27 times and has thrown out 149 batters at the plate, while walking 54.

Team-wise, EIU lead the opposition in total stolen bases (55 to 43), walks (120 to 90) and sacrifice bunts (39 to 26).

RE-SCOUTING THE RACERS: EIU will immediately have a rematch versus Murray State to open up OVC Tourney action and will look to avenge losing two of three at home to the Racers last weekend.

In that series, Kaitlyn England led all Racers with a .400 (4-for-10) batting average against EIU. She had four RBI off three doubles. Jenna Bradley nailed a grand-slam to pull away from the Panthers in the final game of the series, finishing with 5 total RBI, adding a triple and a stolen base. Pitcher Chelsey Sullivan went 2-0 in the circle, striking out six EIU batters and walking four and allowing just one earned run on the weekend.

In the first year as a intercollegiate program, the Racer softball squad is led by Mattoon native and Lakeland College alum Megan Glosser's .306 hitting mark as she was one of three Racers to hit .375 versus EIU last weekend. She has 44 total hits, all but one of the single hit variety, and has touched home plate 37 times. She is also a force once on base as she leads with a 27-of-31 stolen base mark, 11 more than the next highest base thief on the squad.

Freshman Ellyn Troup has a .294 batting average and 27 RBI numbers with nine extra-base hits.

Team-wise, the Racers lead their opposition in hitting (.251 to .246), triples (eight to five), home runs (32 to 27), RBI (201 to 188), slugging (.375 to .363), on-base percentage (.361 to .347), ERA (3.50 to 3.63), and steals (91 to 68). They just barely trail their opponents in runs (232 to 233) and strikeouts (288 to 244).

.... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID