Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois and Murray State faired much better against Mother Nature on Sunday afternoon as the two schools split their Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader at Williams Field.
Murray State jumped out early in the opener and posted a 9-5 win in game one on Sunday.
Eastern Illinois rebounded with a strong pitching performance in the second game to clinch the weekend series with a 5-0 win.
EIU improved to 19-17 overall, 6-5 in the OVC winning two of the three weekend games against Murray State by shutout. Murray State moved to 24-10 overall, 9-2 in the OVC.
MURRAY STATE 9, EASTERN ILLINOIS 5
After being limited to just two hits in Saturday's 8-0 loss at EIU, Murray State jumped out early on Sunday afternoon. Logan Braundmeier, who had the only two hits for the Racers on Saturday, opened the game with a solo home run; her sixth of the year.
The Racers added more offense in the second as they scored six runs sending 11 batters to the plate. Gracie Osbron had the big hit in the inning with a bases clearing double that she would come around to score on as the throw to get a runner out at the plate hit the runner and ricocheted away. Erin Lackey and Kamryn Carcich added RBI hits in the inning.
Murray State extended its lead to 7-0 in the third with a solo home run by Lackey. Sierra Gilmore added a solo blast for the Racers run in the sixth.
EIU cut the Murray State lead in half with four runs in the fourth. The Panthers drove in all four runs in the frame with doubles by
Megan Burton,
Maddie Swart and
Hannah Cravens. Cravens double scored two runs.
EIU made one final push in the seventh scoring one run on a wild pitch before Racers starter Hannah James returned to close the door and record the final three outs.
Jenna Veber picked up the win in relief for Murray State improving to 10-4.
Alexa Rehmeier suffered the loss for EIU falling to 8-4.
Osbron and Jackson both had three hits in the game to lead Murray State.
Swart and
Jaylen Prichard had two hits each to lead EIU.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 5, MURRAY STATE 0
Eastern Illinois bounced back in the final game of the series with strong pitching performance by
Rachel Kaufman. The junior college transfer scattered five hits throwing a complete game shutout to improve to 3-5 on the season.
The Panthers provided Kaufman all the run support she would need with two runs in the first against Murray State starter Kamryn Carcich (3-1).
Hannah Cravens had an RBI single to right followed by a sacrifice fly by
Megan Burton to put EIU up 2-0.
EIU tacked on solo runs in the third and fourth inning with home runs by Cravens and
Kendall Fields. It was the OVC leading 12th home run of the season for Cravens.
The Panthers final run of the game came in the fifth on an RBI single by Burton as EIU had only five hits in the game. Cravens had two hits while Burton, Fields and
Maddie Swart had the other three.
Kaufman was sharp all afternoon in the circle allowing only two Murray State runners to reach second or third base. In the third she would strand the Racers Isabella Wilson at third base.
Wilson was one of five MSU players with hits in the game. Erin Lackey, Sierra Gilmore, Lily Fischer and Carcich all joined Wilson with hits for the Racers.
