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Game #33 Box:  PDF
Game #34 Box:  PDF
Season Series Stats (PDF)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Eastern Illinois softball swept an Ohio Valley Conference twinbill at Tennessee State on Friday (April 6) via scores of 7-3 and 5-3.

The Panthers earn the squad's third consecutive league series win and move to 19-15 overall and 9-6 in league play.

Sophomore Reynae Hutchinson finished with a team-high .571 bat on the day, going 4-for-7 at the plate and registering two RBI and a double. Junior Melise Brown followed with three RBI numbers off a 4-for-9 plate performance.

Senior Hayley Pieper led the EIU baserunners witha 2-for-2 stolen base mark and 2-for-5 bat in the sweep.

In the first game 7-3 win, sophomore Carly Willert hit .750 and junior Melise Brown hit .600 thank a respective 2-RBI double and single by the duo.  Hutchinson and senior Hailee Hanna added their own RBI as well.

The stat of the first game, however, was stolen bases as the Panthers nabbed a season-best five base thefts in the win as Pieper secured a pair, followed by one each for Brown, sophomore Morgan Biel, and Willert.

Pitcher Stephanie Maday picked up the victory to now sport a 10-8 overall season record.  In her 10th complete game, the sophomore retired six TSU batters via strikes, allowed four walks and fanned six hits by the home squad.

EIU plated a run in both the second and third frames to start the day, the first thanks to a TSU dropped fly to score Hutchinson, while the sophomore then brought home Brown off a hit for the early 2-0 lead.

After the host team countered with two runs of their own in their half of the third inning, the Panthers exploded for four runs in the fourth as Brown's 2-RBI single first plated both sophomore Kaylie Pruett and junior Abby Wood.  That was followed by Willert's 2-RBI double to score both Brown and sophomore Bailey O'Dell.

A fifth inning score by TSU and an EIU RBI double by Hanna to bring home Westover late in the seventh inning would account for the final 7-3 score.

In the nightcap, Hutchinson went 2-for-3 and joined Pieper, Brown, Hanna, and sophomore Ashleigh Westover with an RBI.

Sophomore transfer Hanna Mennenga earned the complete game win in the circle behind six strikeouts, three walks, all while holding TSU bats to a low .182 bat mark.  She moves to 9-4 overall on the year with the victory with her sixth complete game.

TSU came out strong in the final game as the Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead through two innings, but the Panthers clawed ahead with three runs in their half of the third frame.

With two on, Brown ripped a shot up the middle to plate Pruett from second base.  Hutchinson then added another RBI as her infield single to third base batted in O'Dell.  Pieper added her own infield RBI in the frame as her shot to second base allowed Brown to scamper home and give Eastern the 3-2 lead.

EIU added two additional security runs in the sixth, with the first coming off another TSU miscue and the final score via a sac fly off the bat of Hanna to bring Pieper home from third.

Nine different Panthers earned at least one hit in the twinbill as EIU out-paced the Tigers (10-25/3-13)  in several statistical categories, including batting (.323 to .208), runs (12 to six), hits (20 to 10), doubles (five to two), RBI (11 to five), total bases (25 to 12), strikeouts (seven to 12), and errors (three to five).

TSU did lead EIU in walks earned and sacrifice hits, however.

With the sweep, the Panthers improved the all-time series lead over the Tigers to 25-11.

The Panthers conclude the three-game series at TSU with a Saturday single-game set for 1 p.m.

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