YOUNGSVILLE, La. – Eastern Illinois softball lost a pair of games on Saturday afternoon as they played the second of three days at the Mardi Gras Mambo. The Panthers lost the opener to Louisiana Tech 10-3 before being shutout in the second game of the day, 5-0, by Southeastern Louisiana.
EIU will wrap up the three-day tournament on Sunday morning facing Nicholls State. On Friday EIU lost in extra innings to No. 15 Louisiana before being edged in the nightcap by Northwestern State.
LOUISIANA TECH 10, EASTERN ILLINOIS 3
Louisiana Tech put together two big scoring innings on Saturday afternoon to beat Eastern Illinois 10-3.
The Lady Techsters loaded the bases in the top of the third with singles by Sierra Sacco and Katelin Cooper followed by a hit batter. Lindsay Edwards then cleared the bases with a grand slam to put Louisiana Tech up 4-0 early.
EIU scratched across a run in the bottom of the third with
Lindy Milkowski leading off with a single. She would come around to score on an RBI by
Morgan Lewis.
Louisiana Tech extended the lead to 6-1 in the fourth taking advantage of an EIU error. Amanda Gonzalez would drive in one of the two runs in the frame.
Hannah Cravens cut into the Louisiana Tech lead in the bottom of the inning leading off with a home run, her fourth of the season. EIU would take advantage of an error to score their second run and cut the Louisiana Tech to 6-3.
The Lady Techsters added a single run in the fifth and broke open the game with three in the seventh. Six different players each collected one hit for Louisiana Tech with Sacco scoring two of the ten runs.
Five different EIU players had one hit with Cravens home run the lone Panthers extra base hit.
Audrey Pickett picked up the win improving to 5-2.
Rachel Kaufman suffered the loss falling to 1-3.
Louisiana Tech improved to 8-5 with the win.
SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA 5, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
Southeastern Louisiana pitcher KK Ladner allowed just three hits while striking out six during a 5-0 win over Eastern Illinois.
EIU placed runners in scoring position just three times during the game including
Megan Burton reaching third base in the seventh. Burton also reached second in the fourth on a dobule as she was 2-for-3 in the game.
Southeastern Louisiana manufactured the only run they would need in the bottom of the second. Bailey Krolczyk led off with a double and after moving to third base on an infield ground out, came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Lindsey Rizzo.
The Lady Lions tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning taking advantage of control issues by the EIU pitching staff as four straight batters drew walks coupled with a wild pitch accounting for the two runs.
The final two runs came in the bottom of the sixth as two Southeatern Louisiana batters reached on walks with Audrey Greeley delivering a two-run double.
Ladner picked up the win improving to 1-0 on the season as Southeastern Louisiana improved to 9-3 overall. The Lady Lions had only four hits in the game but took advantage of six walks and one hit batter.
Tieghan Morio suffered the loss falling to 1-3 on the season. EIU fell to 6-8 after the two Saturday losses.
