CHARLESTON, Ill. -- With the regular-season quickly coming to an end, Eastern Illinois softball is set to play six games over five days, as the Panthers face Ohio Valley Conference East Division foes Belmont and Tennessee State in a pair of doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday, respectively, before returning home for a mid-week twinbill with I-70 rival Butler on Tuesday.
Riding a seven-game winning streak, the Panthers sport a 30-11 overall record and sit among the top teams in the OVC standings at 10-4. EIU is coming off a complete series sweep of arch-rival UT Martin last weekend, as the Panthers earned consecutive home shutouts of the Skyhawks.
Meanwhile, the upcoming three opponents are a combined 45-77 heading into the weekend, with all owning losing records, as Butler leads with 17 wins on the season.
Live stats and video will be available for the road matchups at BEL and TSU over the weekend, while EIU will have stats and audio coverage in the home twinbill with the Bulldogs next Tuesday.
AROUND THE HORN WITH EIU
• Sophomore Jennette Isaac and senior Brooke Owens pace all Panthers with identical .350 batting averages at this point in the season. Isaac upped her season-high hit streak to 19 consecutive games with a safe hit, but had the streak snapped this past weekend. She ties for stolen base numbers with 10 thefts on the year. Owens, meanwhile, leads her squad with 28 runs, 10 doubles, five homers and a .585 slug %, while ranking second in hits and third in RBI.
• Junior Hannah Cole continues her fine junior campaign as she is hitting .348 on the year behind a team-best 46 hits, 31 RBI, and three triples. She delivered a pair of game-winning RBIs in EIU's pair of 1-0 victories over UTM last Saturday afternoon.
• The senior pitching duo of Hanna Mennenga and Stephanie Maday continues to shine in the circle for the Panthers, as each earned shutout wins over UTM last Saturday, while Maday added another 4-0 blanking of the Skyhawks in the series sweep on Sunday. The two have combined for 13 total shutouts this season, with Mennenga owning 147 total strikeouts and Maday owning 100 Ks of her own. As a team, EIU sports a 2.43 ERA which ranks among the best in the league.
• In team numbers, the Panthers continue to hold the advantage over their opponents in hitting (.288-to-.217), runs (196-to-120), hits (315-to-233), RBI (160-to-107), slug % (.427-to-.318), stolen bases (59-to-39), errors (47-to-61), strikeouts thrown (265-to-165), and ERA (2.43-to-3.45).
• The Panthers have used impressive play in the fourth inning of late, as EIU as out-scored their opponents, 42-to-13, in that frame. When scoring six or more runs in a contest, the Panthers are a perfect 13-0 and 22-1 when holding the opposition to two or fewer scores.
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 currently sports a 377-275-1 all-time record (258-193-1 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.
Nicholson has previously faced Belmont, Tennessee State and Butler during her coaching tenure, as she won the lone meeting versus the Bruins back in 2011, lost the only matchup with the Tigers and is 11-5 all-time against Butler, having coached the Bulldogs for one season herself back in 2006, going 17-30-1 before moving to lead her alma mater Viking squad.
GAME DAY WEATHER FORECAST
According to weather.com, Nashville is expected to mostly cloudy on Friday with a high of 69 and just 10% chances for rain, while mostly sunny skies and upper 70s with zero precipitation is in the mix for Saturday. Meanwhile, for Tuesday back at home against Butler, sunny skies and low 70s are expected after the area receives some scattered storms the day before.
SCOUTING THE WEEKEND COMPETITION
Belmont owns a 12-25 record and have lost six of their last ten contests to own a 6-10 league mark. They are coming off a 1-2 record in their OVC series with Eastern Kentucky.
Junior Kat Hollingsworth leads three different Bruins hitting over .300 on the year. She has a .342 clip behind 38 hits, five doubles, three homers, 22 RBI and 54 total bases, while also owning a nearly perfect 12-for-13 mark for stolen bases. Fellow junior Amanda Criscione and sophomore Taylor Moon follow hitting .333 and .317, respectively, while Jessica Wilson has hit the most homers with five.
In the circle, Moon pulls double duty with her team-best seven wins and 2.87 ERA as she has fanned 55 hitters off 102.1 innings of work. Opponents are hitting .242 against, however as she has given up 97 total hits and 42 earned runs.
The Panthers are a perfect 2-0 in the short all-time series with the Bruins, as Eastern picked up a pair of home wins last season, after the 2012 series to be played in Nashville was washed out due to heavy flooding in the area at that time.
Having also lost eight of their last ten games, Tennessee State sits at 16-30 and 4-12, prior to hosting SIU Edwardsville on Saturday.
Sophomore Lindsey Burgess paces all TIgers with a .290 as no one on the TSU squad is hitting over .300 at this point of the campaign. Burgess has 40 total hits, including seven doubles and five homers, while nabbing 62 total bases and a 6-for-8 base theft tally. Junior Kate Morris follows with a team-high 23 RBI as she's hitting .266 with 37 hits, eight doubles and 48 total bags. Newcomer Courtney Gearlds is a threat once she gets on base as she sports a 13-for-15 mark in stolen bases.
Junior Shea Morris leads the TSU pitchers with a 9-11 overall record behind 142 innings in the circle. She has 123 total Ks and has walked 39 batters while allowing 148 hits and 61 earned runs as the opposition is hitting .256 against her.
The Panthers own the all-time series advantage over TSU, 36-11, as EIU has now won eight consecutive times over the Tigers. Eastern is actually 16-6 all-time when playing on TSU's home field.
Prior to playing a Big East weekend series at Georgetown, the Bulldogs of Butler are 17-22 on the year and an even 5-5 in conference action. They have played a few fellow OVC foes this season, as the Bulldogs downed Belmont once and twice took care of Morehead State, but also lost to Eastern Kentucky.
Juniors Cassie Rupel and Sarah Gronowski lead their squads with respective .372 and .315 bat marks, while freshmen Brandyce Sallee and Chelsea Norwood both have 23 RBIs to their credit. Sophomore Alex Kotter, meanwhile, paces all Bulldogs with 49 total bases off 10 doubles, three homers and a .480 slug %. Gronowski has been a threat on the base as she owns a 14-for-18 stolen base tally.
Fellow sophomore Kristin Gutierrez leads a full contingent of pitchers for Butler as she sits at 11-9 on the year behind 128 innings of work. She has fanned 114 batters, allowed just 43 walks, yet the opposition is hitting .247 against her as she also owns a 3.66 ERA.
The Panthers enjoy a 14-11 series advantage over Butler, but split the last meetings in 2012 at home with the Bulldogs, as last year's road twinbill was rained out.
PANTHERS OWN TOP RPI IN THE OVC
With the latest national RPI ranking out this week, the EIU Panthers continue to move up in the team ranks. Eastern jumped 20 spots from a previous No. 82 mark to now sit at No. 62. That is more than 30 spots ahead of Murray State (96), while other OVC contenders SIUE (106), Jacksonville State (108) and EKU (119) lag behind. In fact, the Panthers now sit ahead of Big Ten foe Purdue (83).
UP NEXT FOR THE PANTHERS
After hosting Butler in a pair of mid-week non-conference contests, the Panthers will entertain fellow OVC West Division foe Austin Peay in a three-game weekend series to finish up the regular-season home slate. Action gets underway with a Saturday twinbill, followed by a Sunday single game. Over the course of the weekend the Panthers will honor one of their largest senior classes in program history.
Then Eastern will finish up the regular-season with a crucial road series at SIU Edwardsville on May 3-4.
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
