CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Eastern Illinois softball dropped respective 6-0 and 9-4 road contests at Ohio Valley Conference rival Southeast Missouri on Saturday (April 25), marking just the second time this season the Panthers have lost a league series.

The Panthers drop to 16-24 overall and 11-10 in the OVC, while the host Redhawks improve to 15-23 and 9-11.

For the day, freshman Tori Johnson led all Panthers with a 3-for-5 plate performance, while junior transfer Katie Watson drilled her first career home run and joined classmate April Markowski and sophomores Ashlynne Paul & Amber Toenyes with respective RBIs.

In the first game shutout, the home SEMO squad hit a pair of home runs to score once in the opening frame, four in the fifth and another run in the sixth for the final margin of victory.  The Redhawks out-hit EIU, 9-to-4 in the victory.

Freshman Jessica Wireman was tagged for the loss in the circle to fall to 9-11 as she finished with a pair of strikeouts but allowed four walks.

In the nightcap, SEMO once again used the long ball to pull ahead of Eastern, 6-0, through three innings.  In fact, five different Redhawks delivered at least one bomb, with the six shots over the fence tying the OVC single-game record, which ironically was set by the 2010 Panther softball squad down in Cape Girardeau in late March.  Except on that occasion six different Panthers each drilled a ball for a bomb.

After SEMO added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to own a 9-0 advantage over EIU, the Panthers were able to avoid the five-inning run rule loss as Eastern added three runs of their own in the top of the fifth thanks to RBI singles by Paul and Markowski and a sac fly flyout by Toenyes.

Watson ended the Panther run total with her own solo homer in the top of the seventh.

Michelle Rogers fell to 6-12 overall as the newcomer pitcher saw one-third of an inning worth of work for EIU, while sophomore Hannah Rachor and Wireman also saw action in the circle for the Panthers.

Panthers and Redhawks will complete the three-game weekend series at 1 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.

EIU will then host instate foe Southern Illinois in a 4 p.m. single game on Wednesday (April 29), before entertaining SIU Edwardsville in the Panthers' home finale OVC series next weekend.
 
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID