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Weekend Series Stats:  PDF

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Eastern Illinois softball split the final day of Samford Scramble action with a 3-1 win over the host Bulldogs following an eight-inning 9-6 heartbreaker to Mercer.

Panthers improve to 4-3 on the year and bring home their second consecutive second-place early-season tournament honor of the 2012 campaign.

"We got better this weekend, which was our goal," said seventh-year head coach Kim Schuette.  "We had two good wins against Samford and the extra-inning loss versus Mercer could have gone either way.  We had our chances to win and the next time that we are in that situation it will be easier."

Junior Melise Brown led all EIU players with a 4-for-7 day at the plate, which included nailing the first home run by a Panther this season.  She had two RBI, a pair of walks, earned seven total bases, and nabbed a 1.000 Sunday slug mark.

Freshman Bailey O'Dell drilled a pair of doubles and joined sophomores Carly Willert and Morgan Biel with two RBI performances today.  Sophomore Ashleigh Westover also collected a double.

Three runs in the top of the first would be all the offense the Panthers needed in the final game of the weekend tourney as EIU defeated the host Bulldogs (3-8) for the second straight day by a score of 3-1.

An RBI groundout by Biel would plate Brown from third, then O'Dell would notch a two-RBI double to score Willert and sophomore Reynae Hutchinson.

Samford would pull to within two runs of the Panthers off an RBI single in the fourth as both squads earned five hits in the game.

Heartland transfer Hanna Mennenga earned her first Division I victory in the circle, retiring six batters via strikes and earning just one walk.  The Panther defense backed up the sophomore as Eastern stranded seven Samford base runners, while the Bulldogs committed an error to none for EIU.

In the first game of the day, the Panthers saw a 5-2 lead over Mercer slip away as the Bears used the long ball to tie the game before eventually earning the 9-6 win in eight innings.

EIU secured two runs in the bottom of the first before Mercer nailed a solo bomb to pull to within 2-1 of EIU in the second.  Brown then returned the favor with her own solo shot over the center field fence in the third  frame.

After the Bears added another score in the fifth, Eastern would add two runs of their own in their half of the inning as a walk from Brown and a double by Westover set the table for Willert's RBI shot to score Brown.

Following a Mercer pitching change, Biel's ground-out RBI would plate Westover as EIU led 5-2.

Unfortunately a three-run sixth inning by the Bears, which included consecutive solo home runers, would knot the score at five-all.

With the international tie-breaker starting in the eighth frame, Mercer would explode for four runs, including a three-run blast.

EIU would make things interesting with an additional run in the bottom of the inning thanks to an RBI single up the middle by Brown that brought home O'Dell, who had previously been placed on second.

A full contingent of pitchers saw action in the game, with Hutchinson being tagged with the loss off 2.2 innings of work.  Sophomore Stephanie Maday earned the start where she secured seven strikeouts and five walks, while Mennenga pitched briefly as well.

Eastern actually out-hit the Bears, 10-8 in the loss, but also committed the lone error in the game.  The Panthers also stranded 10 base runners, while Mercer had nine of their own.

The Panthers will return to early-season tournament action next weekend, traveling to the two-day Mississippi State Tournament on March 3-4.

On Saturday, EIU will open play against the host team and playing one of two contests versus Louisiana Tech.  Then the next day, following another game with LUA, the Panthers will battle Samford for the third time this season.

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