Eastern Illinois Softball Upcoming Schedule
April 30 – at Belmont at 1 pm … Live Stats | Watch on ESPN+
April 30 – at Belmont at 3:30 pm … Live Stats | Watch on ESPN+
May 1 – at Belmont … Live Stats
ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois heads on the road for the final time during the regular season as the Panthers are coming off a pair of walk-off wins on Wednesday over SIUE. EIU won 6-5 in 11 innings and then 10-2 in six innings to improve to 23-26 overall, 8-14 in the OVC. EIU faces a Belmont team that has moved into first place in the OVC standings at 27-12 overall, 17-5 in the OVC. Belmont had won eight straight games prior to a loss on Wednesday to Tennessee State.
QUICK HITTER NOTES:
Morgan Lewis continues her return to the EIU line-up after missing nearly a month with a foot injury. Lewis has now had hits in five straight games and leads EIU with a .383 average which ranks eighth in the OVC. She hit .462 last weekend against Austin Peay going 6-for-13 and in the midweek sweep of SIUE was 5-for-10 with two stolen bases. Earlier this season she had a 12-game hit streak, the longest of the season for an EIU player.
Olivia Price came in to pitch in relief in EIU's game one win over SIUE. Price pitched 8.1 innings of scoreless relief to pick up her fifth win this season. Price lowered her season ERA to 4.07 and is third on the team with 65.1 innings pitched this season. The previous longest outing this season by Price was six innings against both SIUE on March 29 in relief and Northern Illinois on March 13 in a start.
Lindy Milkowski extended her hitting streak to five games with hits in both games of the Panthers midweek doubleheader sweep of SIUE. Milkowski had three doubles driving in four runs as she now has ten multi-hit games this season and nine multi-RBI contests. She is now second on the team with 12 doubles while hitting .293 for the season.
Rachel Kaufman reached base in both games of Wednesday's doubleheader against SIUE as she has now reached base in seven straight games, the longest active streak on the Panthers roster. In addition Kaufman pitched in relief in the game two win picking up the victory as she improved to 4-8 on the season. Kaufman currently has a 3.61 ERA for the year in 73.2 innings pitched. She ranks second on the team in ERA, innings pitched and strike outs.
Riley Dittmar helped the Panthers pick up the 6-5 game one win with her RBI single in the 11th inning. Dittmar is hitting .300 this season, one of four Panthers currently hitting at .300 or better this season. The 11-inning game was the longest of the season for the Panthers and their fourth extra inning contest this season. EIU is now 2-2 in extra innings with a win over IUPUI in nine innings and losses to No. 15 Louisiana in nine innings and Austin Peay in nine innings.
EIU's offensive power numbers for the season continue to climb the EIU single season record book list. EIU now has 43 home runs which is the third most in school history. EIU has 70 doubles which is the fifth most in school history. EIU has scored 257 runs this season which is second most in school history and five shy of breaking the school mark. EIU has now driven in a school record 237 runs, the previous mark was 235 set during the 2011 season.
STREAKS & LEADERS
Multiple Hit Games: Hannah Cravens (14),
Megan Burton (14),
Jaylen Prichard (13),
Lindy Milkowski (10)
Multiple RBI Games: Hannah Cravens (12),
Megan Burton (10),
Riley Dittmar (9),
Lindy Milkowski (9)
Active Hitting Streaks: Morgan Lewis (5),
Lindy Milkowski (5)
Active Reached Base Streak: Rachel Kaufman (7),
Lindy Milkowski (6),
Morgan Lewis (5),
Jaylen Prichard (5)
SEASON HIGHLIGHT NOTES:
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 34. She is currently third all-time at EIU with 43 doubles and fourth all-time with 73 stolen bases. Burton has also climbed up the EIU career hits and runs scored lists this season. She is now 6th with 209 career hits and second with 148 runs scored.
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 is currently second on the Panthers roster with 35 RBI as she is one of four EIU players with 25 or more RBI 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 4-4 on the season with nine 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.
Rachel Kaufman was the latest EIU player to join the Grand Slam club this season as she hit a walk-off grand slam to finish off the Panthers 15-5 win over Morehead State. Kaufman drove in five runs the game. She became the third different EIU player to hit a grand slam this season joining
Lindy Milkowski (2) and
Megan Burton.
Hannah Cravens had her power numbers held in check during the weekend series against Austin Peay but still remains among the OVC leaders. Cravens leads the conference in home runs (13) and RBI (43) while ranking second in the conference in doubles with 17 (ranks 5th nationally). This season Cravens has moved into the EIU career top ten in doubles (5th / 42), home runs (4th / 24) and RBI (7th / 107).
SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois and Belmont will be meeting for the 16th time this weekend when the two teams meet in an OVC series in Nashville. EIU leads the all-time series 11-4 including winning two of three last year in Charleston.
NEXT UP: Following the Panthers trip to Nashville to face Belmont this weekend, EIU will return home to host Tennessee Tech on May 7-8 at Williams Field in the final weekend of the regular season.
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.
