BATON ROUGE, La. – Eastern Illinois softball opened the 2015 campaign with a tough 6-1 loss at #19-ranked Louisiana State during Friday (Feb. 6) evening play at the Tiger's own weekend Classic in front of a crowd of 1,411.
Panthers will continue busy weekend action on Saturday and Sunday, heading to Lafayette, La. to partake in the Louisiana-Lafayette Classic, as EIU will face the #9-ranked Ragin' Cajuns and Incarnate Word in a pair of games.
Four different Panthers tallied a hit in the loss, with sophomore
Hannah Rachor securing the lone RBI in the top of the sixth frame as she helped to plate senior
Bailey O'Dell from third base.
Juniors
Haylee Beck and
April Markowski joined O'Dell with respective singles in the contest.
Newcomer
Jessica Wireman earned the start in the circle, fanning a pair of Tiger batters and allowing just one earned run behind six full innings. Â Fellow freshman
Michelle Rogers came in relief in the final frame to an additional strikeout.
The Tigers jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage with single scores through four innings of play, before erupting for three additional scores in the bottom of the fifth. Â The home squad led EIU in hits, 10-to-four, while the Panthers committed two more miscues than LSU.
Panthers play ULL at 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon prior to facing Incarnate Word at 5:30 p.m.
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... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SIDÂ
