CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Eastern Illinois softball returns to early-season tourney play this coming weekend as the Panthers open compete at the five-team Mardi Gras Classic, which will be hosted by Louisiana-Monroe on Feb. 14-16.
EIU opens the action on Friday with consecutive games versus the host Warhawks and Grambling State at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., respectively. The Panthers repeat the same schedule the next Saturday evening, before finishing up the tournament with a 10 a.m. matchup with Houston Baptist on Sunday morning.
Fellow OVC arch-rival Southeast Missouri will also take part in the event, but the Panthers and Redhawks are naturally not scheduled to face one another due to league play conflicts.
LOUISIANA-MONROE MARDI GRAS CLASSIC SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14
1:15 pm … Houston Baptist vs. Southeast Missouri
3:15 pm … Southeast Missouri at Louisiana-Monroe
5:30 pm … Eastern Illinois at Louisiana-Monroe
7:30 pm … Eastern Illinois vs. Grambling State
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15
11 am … Houston Baptist vs. Southeast Missouri
1:15 pm ... Southeast Missouri vs. Grambling State
3:15 pm … Houston Baptist at Louisiana-Monroe
5:30 pm … Eastern Illinois at Louisiana-Monroe
7:30 pm … Eastern Illinois vs. Grambling State
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15
10 am ... Eastern Illinois vs. Houston Baptist
Noon ... Southeast Missouri vs. Grambling State
2:15 pm ... Grambling State at Louisiana-Monroe
... Opponents & times (central) subject to change
... Free live stats & online video will be available via links above.
ITEMS OF INTEREST
• Adding last weekend's openers, EIU now owns a 3-15 record in season-openers and a 25-38 first weekend tourney tally since joining the OVC back in 1997.
• Senior pitcher Stephanie Maday already leads the Ohio Valley Conference for individual ERA, thanks to her current 1.91 mark. She enters the weekend at 1-1 overall with 10 strikeouts under her belt.
• Team-wise, the EIU pitching staff sports a 4.49 ERA, which ranks second-best in the league following opening weekend action.
• Senior Carly Willert owns a league-best mark for total bases with 13. She has delivered four singles, two doubles, a triple, and a homeruns, while also owning a Top 10 mark for slug % at .765.
• Four different Panthers -- Carly Willert, April Markowski, Ashleigh Westover, and Hannah Cole -- have already delivered at least one triple on the year.
• Brooke Owens not only paces all Panthers with a .400 bat, but also currently owns a four-game hitting streak and joins Carly Willert by reaching base safely in all five games this season.
• Hannah Cole, Reynae Hutchinson and April Markowski have all tallied a pair of multi-hit games on the early year
• Last week's February 7 season opener marked one of the earliest Panther spring starts in school history.
QUICK LOOK AT THE PANTHERS
Possible EIU starters for the weekend include:
1 - Haylee Beck (CF) ... So ... .188 BA ... 5 R ... 3 H
2 - Carly Willert (2B) ... Sr ... .353 BA ... 3 R ... 6 H ... 3 RBI ... 1-1 SB
3 - Brooke Owens (C) ... Sr ... .400 BA ... 4 R ... 6 H ... 1 RBI
4 - Hannah Cole (DH) ... Jr ... .300 BA ... 6 H ... 6 RBI ... 1-2 SB
5 - Reynae Hutchinson (1B) ... Sr ... .333 BA ... 1 R ... 4 H ... 2 RBI ... 1-1 SB
6 - April Markowski (RF) ... So ... .333 BA ... 2 R ... 5 H ... 2 RBI ... 1-1 SB
7 - Bailey O'Dell (SS) ... Jr ... .071 BA ... 1 R .. 1 H ... 1 RBI
8 - Ashleigh Westover (3B) ... Sr ... .308 BA ... 3 R ... 4 H ... 2 RBI
9 - Jennette Isaac (LF) ... So ... .333 BA ... 4 R ... 4 H ... 3 RBI ... 1-1 SB
Pitching Staff ...
Stephanie Maday ... Sr ... 1.91 ERA ... 1-1 ... 14.2 IP ... 4 ER ... 10 BB ... 10 SO
Hanna Mennenga ... Sr ... 4.74 ERA ... 0-1 ... 10.1 IP ... 7 ER ... 2 BB ... 2 SO
Janele Robinson ... Sr ... 6.75 ERA ... 1-1 ... 9.1 IP ... 9 ER ... 3 BB ... 9 SO
PANTHERS UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP
Entering her 14th season as a head coach, including nine at a NCAA DI program, Angie Nicholson arrives to Eastern after coaching seven seasons at perennial Horizon League power Cleveland State.
She sports a 349-267-1 all-time record (230-185-1 in DI), having previously led her Viking squads to two regular-season league titles and an appearance at the NCAA Regional thanks to a conference tourney championship.
As a two-time Horizon League 'Coach of the Year' honoree herself, Nicholson has mentored three conference Players of the Year and a trio of Pitchers of the Year. In her final season at CSU last spring, she coached both the Horizon League Player and Newcomer of the Year.
QUOTING COACH NICHOLSON
"We are looking forward to getting out on the dirt this weekend," said Nicholson. "We have been working this week on getting our pitchers to really get ahead of the batters and to be more efficient in their pitch counts. We are also continuing to work on our hitting and build upon what we started last weekend.
"So we are cleaning some things up and getting ready to come out with a little bit more of an aggressive approach this weekend," she added.
SCOUTING THE WEEKEND COMPETITION
The Panthers own an all-time mark of 5-3 against the three squads that EIU will be playing at this weekend's tourney.
Tourney host Louisiana-Monroe enters the weekend at 3-2 overall, which included a pair of wins over fellow OVC foe Tennessee Tech, yet the Warhawks also split a couple of games to another league rival, Morehead State. Last spring, ULM went just 15-27 overall and 6-20 in the Soutland as they return 10 letter winners and six starters. Eastern enjoys a 4-3 advantage over the previous matchups with the Warhawks, as EIU split two road games at ULM back in 2011.
Grambling State will actually open the 2014 season this weekend, as the Tigers return 12 players that went 11-33 last spring, including a 5-15 SWAC tally. This weekend will mark the first ever matchups between the Panthers and Tigers on the softball field.
Houston Baptist currently sport the same 2-3 mark as the Panthers heading into the Mardi Gras Classic slate. Two of their wins came via five-inning mercy rules, while losing all three of their games by a combined four runs. EIU won the lone meeting between the two squads, 7-3, on neutral territory back in 2011.
Meanwhile, the other tourney participant, Southeast Missouri, will also open their season at this weekend's three-day event in Louisiana.
UP NEXT FOR THE PANTHERS
Eastern returns to early-season tourney action next weekend, as the Panthers are set to travel to Jackson, Miss., to face the host Tigers twice, while also taking on Kansas and Southeastern Louisiana in single games.
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
