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Eastern Illinois Softball Upcoming Schedule

March 16 at IUPUI (DH) – 1 pm … Live Stats 

 
ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois extended its win streak to four games as the Panthers won all three weekend contests at the SIU Saluki Invite.  EIU improved to 11-12 on the season as the Panthers travel to IUPUI for a midweek doubleheader.  IUPUI enters the midweek matchup with a 2-20 record.
 
CRAVENS NAMED OVC PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  Second baseman Hannah Cravens was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week after leading the Panthers to a pair of Sunday wins at the SIU Saluki Invite.  On Monday morning the redshirt junior continued her solid weekend as Cravens hit .625 for the three games with two doubles, one home run and seven RBI.  Cravens leads the OVC with eight home runs and now has 23 for her career which ranks fifth all-time.  Cravens also moved into the EIU career top ten for doubles as she now has 32.

MORIO WITH A PAIR OF WEEKEND WINS:  Tieghan Morio posted a 2-0 record in the circle last weekend for the Panthers as she had eight innings of work in two appearances.  Morio closed out the final four innings on Monday against NIU.  For the weekend she had five strikeouts with a 1.75 ERA. 
 
MILKOWSKI HITTING STREAK EXTENDED:  Lindy Milkowski hit .375 during the Panthers weekend tournament action at the SIU Saluki Invite.  More importantly the transfer catcher from Iowa extended her hitting streak to seven games which is the current longest active streak on the EIU roster.   Milkowski is hitting .268 for the year with five home runs and 22 RBI.   
 
SEASON HIGHLIGHT NOTES:
In the season opening weekend at the Rosemont Dome catcher Lindy Milkowski hit three home runs finishing the opening weekend with 11 RBI in the four games.  In the win over Valparaiso she hit two grand slams in the win tying an NCAA record.  Milkowski currently leads the Panthers in RBI with 22 which ranks second in the OVC this season. 
 
 Starting pitcher Tieghan Morio, a transfer from Ball State, tossed just the seventh no-hitter in program history during a 4-0 win over Alabama A&M at the River City Classic II Tournament.  Morio is 1-3 on the season with five starts in the circle.  The last EIU pitcher to toss a no-hitter was Jessica Wireman on April 11, 2015 during a 3-0 win over UT Martin.  Pitchers Coli Turley and Stephanie Maday have both pitched a pair of no-hitters in EIU softball history while Hanna Mennega has the other.
 
Megan Burton was named one of 30 candidates for this year's Senior CLASS Award..  Burton was last year's OVC Player of the Year after setting the school single season record for home runs.  This season Burton has moved into second on the EIU career home runs list with 29.  She is currently seventh all-time at EIU with 35 doubles and sixth all-time with 66 stolen bases.  Burton hit over .400 in each of the Panthers last two tournaments and has raised her season batting average to .317.

SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois and IUPUI will be meeting for the 31st time when they face each other on Wednesday afternoon.  The Panthers hold a 22-8 all-time series lead which was last played in 2019. 

NEXT UP:  Following the midweek doubleheader at IUPUI, Eastern Illinois will return home to host Morehead State for the Panthers Ohio Valley Conference opener.  The three game series has been adjusted with a single game at 4 pm on Saturday and doubleheader on Sunday starting at 1 p.m.

HEAD COACH: Tara Archibald is her third season as the head coach at Eastern Illinois.   In her first season Archibald led EIU to an 11-10 record to open the season prior to COVID-10 shortening the season for all college teams.   The Panthers did not get into Ohio Valley Conference play during the 2020 season.   Last season she posted her second straight winning record as EIU finished at 25-19 overall, 16-14 in the OVC.  Archibald has a career record of 36-29 entering the 2022 season.  Archibald is a 2004 graduate of Southern Illinois where she played softball for the Salukis helping the team make the 2003 NCAA Tournament.  She hails from a softball family with her father, Gerry Glasco, the head coach at Louisiana.  She has coaching stops at both the high school and collegiate ranks.   She is assisted by Rachel Houck and Aeshia Miles.