Pre-Weekend Notes (PDF)

Live Stats | Arkansas (host)
Iowa State | Southern Miss
#19-Louisiana-Lafayette | Drake

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- For the third straight weekend the Eastern Illinois softball squad will participate in a weekend tournament, playing against an impressive field of five squads at the three-day Arkansas Invitational, including #19-Ranked Louisiana-Lafayette and the host Razorbacks.

INVITE SCHEDULE: Playing in the squad's final early-season tournament, EIU will take on five teams in a round-robin format, facing Iowa State and the host Razorbacks on Friday, followed by consecutive morning games versus Southern Miss and #19-Ranked Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday. The Panthers then finish weekend play against Drake on Sunday.

The complete schedule is as follows (played at Bogle Park in Fayetteville, Ark.):

Friday, March 5
Southern Miss vs. Drake 9:30 am
EIU vs. Iowa State 11:30 am
Iowa State vs. Southern Miss 1:30 pm
Drake vs. La.-Lafayette 3:30 pm
EIU at Arkansas 5:30 pm
La.-Lafayette at Arkansas 7:30 pm 

Saturday, March 6
EIU vs. Southern Miss 9:30 am
EIU vs. La.-Lafayette 11:30 am
Drake vs. Iowa State 1:30 pm
Southern Miss vs. La.-Lafayette 3:30 pm
Iowa State at Arkansas 5:30 pm
Drake at Arkansas 7:30 pm

Sunday, March 7
La.-Lafayette vs. Iowa State 9 am
EIU vs. Drake 11 am
Southern Miss at Arkansas 1 pm

QUICK LOOK AT THE WEEKEND WEATHER FORECAST: According to weather.com, the three day forecast for the Fayetteville area calls for partly cloudy skies with highs of 61-degrees and evening lows in the 40s.

QUICK LOOK AT EIU: EIU currently sports a 5-3 early-season mark, after opening the year with a 2-2 record at the Georgia State Invite, capturing the weekend championship. The Panthers then went 3-1 at this past weekend's Tulsa Invitational, taking runner-up honors.

13 letterwinners are back for Eastern this year, including the entire outfield, and a majority of the infield as seven position players will be taking on the competition, with the addition of six newcomers to assist the squad.

Leading all players stat-wise is junior first baseman Melinda Jackson, off her .429 batting average. She has 21 at-bats and has connected on nine hits, which includes two doubles and three homors, while also earning seven runs and an impressive 12 RBIs.

Four more Panthers are currently hitting above .300 with senior Denee' Menzione at .353, sophomore Ashley Anderton at .350, while Angie Danca and Kiley Holtz are both hitting at .318.

The EIU bullpen is led by junior Amber May with a 2-2 mark, earning 22 strikeouts, four walks and an amazing low ERA of 0.95. Freshmen Natalie Wunderlich and Hailie Ray are 2-1 and 1-0, respectively with a combined seven Ks and 10 walks, allowing 27 total hits and 14 earned runs.

SCOUTING THE CYCLONES: Iowa State enters the weekend at 7-9 on the year. Sophomore Heidi Kidwell leads with a .473 hitting mark off 26 hits, including three doubles and 10 runs. Seniors Alex Johnson and Courtney Wray tie with 15 RBIs apiece, while Johnson leads all Cyclones with three homers. As a squad, ISU has 20 stolen bases out of 23 attempts, plus have recorded 20 doubles as a team as well. Although the squad has nine bombs so far this year, they have allowed the opposition to hit 22 homers as junior Rachel Zabriskie leads a five-pitcher bullpen with a 7-5 record, 2.61 ERA, behind 93 Ks and 12 walks. Sixteen games into the season and eight of nine starters this year have played every game.

EIU and ISU will meet for the fourth time in the Division I era, with the Cyclones owning a slim 2-1 lead in the all-time series history. The last meeting was back in 2007, with the only EIU win coming about during a double-header split in 1994.

LOOKING AT THE RAZORBACKS: The host squad, who will entertain the six-team field at their own invitational for their home season openers, are currently 8-6 overall. Four Cyclone players are hitting over .300 with seniors Sandra Smith and Miranda Dixon leading with 15 and 12 RBIs, as well as 17 and 13 hits, respectively. Fellow senior Jessica Bachkora ties Dixon with five base-clearers apiece as the team leads their opposition with an 18-10 homerun advantage and lead in extra-base hits 31 to 21. Pitching-wise, a five-personnel bullpen is led by freshman Hope McLemore and junior Layne McGuirt with respective season marks of 4-2 and 3-1, while currently sitting with ERAs of 1.60 and 2.30. McLemore leads with 32 Ks and 18 walks via 35 full innings of work and holds the opponent bats to a .218 hitting mark.

The Panthers and Razorbacks have never met on the softball field.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES: Southern Miss brings an impressive 11-2 mark into the weekend, earning recent wins over Central Arkansas, Indiana, Belmont, and Jackson State. Leading all Eagles is junior Jill Mathis' .500 hitting mark with a team-high seven doubles and 21 total hits. She also leads with 11 RBIs and a .738 slug percentage. Senior Megan Hill has the top homer number with three on the season, while sophomore Leslie LeJune has touched home plate most often with 14 runs. Sophomore Britney Dinelt's four stolen bases tops her squad. Newcomer Gabby Luciani lead a pitching corp with a 3-0 record, 0.95 ERA, 37 innings of work, 46 Ks, 18 walks, and five earned runs.

Southern Miss and EIU will meet for the third time, with the all-time series tied at one-all.
LOOKING AT #19-RANKED RAGIN' CAJUNS: The lone squad to be currently ranked in the Top 25 by the NFCA, the returning NCAA qualifing squad owns a 10-5 record heading into the invite. Six hitters own a batting average above .300 with senior Vallie Gaspard leading with a .385 mark off 15 singles. Sophomore Erikka Murphy's 18 hits lead her squad, as she also has the team's lone triple and is perfect in stolen bases at 10-for-10. Fellow sophomore Christi Orgeron has nailed seven homers and a team-high 16 RBIs, while freshman Britni Soria's five doubles tops all Cajuns. In the circle, senior Brittany Cuevas owns a nice 6-1 mark off a 3.14 ERA, 67 Ks, 17 walks, 49 innings, and holding the opposition to a low hitting percentage of .188 while scattering 35 total hits and 22 earned runs. Team-wise, Louisiana has dominated their opponents for hits (125-73), RBIs (83-36), homers (21-7), walks (50-31), runs (99-49), and an amazing advantage in stolen bases (32-to-nine).

EIU look for their first win against the Ragin' Cajuns in all-time Division I meetings, as Louisiana has won the previous two times in mercy-rule victories back in 2006.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: Regional rival, Drake, enters with a 6-3 record and are led by Erin Bly's .346 hitting percentage, as she sports a team-high nine hits and ties Kelsey Kahler with two homers. Elena Leon has a high RBI mark with seven total and has touched home six times. The squad is 11-for-14 in base thefts with Lindsey Vande Wall going a perfect 5-of-5 in steals. Brynne Dordel and Jenna DeLong both sport winning records in the circle at 3-1 and 3-2, respectively. DeLong leads with 54 strikeouts, while both have registered 11 walks and 24 hits each. In team stats, the Bulldogs lead their opponent for runs (35-19), hits (60-48), doubles (12-7), homers (nine-five), RBI (33-18), and stolen bases (11-two).

This will be the 27th meeting between EIU and Drake, with the Panthers owning an 18-8 all-time series lead in Division I meetings. The two teams split their last meeting, a home double-header in Charleston.
CAT BURGLARS: EIU is an impressive 14-of-16 in stolen base attempts so far this year as freshman outfielder Melise Brown leading with four (of 5) thefts, while both junior Melinda Jackson and senior Megan Nelson have three each.

EIU LEADS IN STATISTICAL CATEGORIES: The Panthers lead their opposition in several categories already this year, including hitting (.276 to .227), hits (55 to 45), runs (42 to 28), RBIs (40 to 26) and stolen bases (14 to three). The EIU pitchers also lead their opponents for ERA (2.26 to 4.12) walks (14 to 19), hits allowed (45 to 55), and earned runs (17 to 30).

MENZIONE CONTINUES TO ADD TO HER HOMERUN TOTALS: Senior Denee' Menzione finished the 2009 campaign with eight homeruns, tying former EIU standout Sandyn Short's 2004 total. That gives her a career total of 19 bombs, just four short of tying Short's milestone of 23 homers. Last year, the outfielder also led all Panthers with 40 RBIs behind 47 hits, a .446 slug percentage, and 32 runs scored. Her four-bag numbers were a big reason the 2009 squad was able to set a new single-season homer tally with 27 smashes.

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