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Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois softball sent its 2022 senior class out on a high note on Sunday as the Panthers swept both games of an Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader over Tennessee Tech.
EIU had a dramatic come-from-behind 16-15 win in the opener before closing the day with a 10-4 victory.
EIU improved to 25-29 overall, 10-17 in the OVC. Tennessee Tech fell to 31-20 overall, 13-14 in the OVC.
The two schools both advance to the OVC Tournament and will face each other in the opening game on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. in Oxford, Ala.
EIU 16, TTU 15 (8 innings)
Eastern Illinois trailed 12-0 after two Tennessee Tech times at-bat in the opening game. EIU would score six runs in the bottom of the seventh and then won the game in the eighth on a walk-off single by
Jaylen Prichard.
Trailing 15-9 heading into the bottom of the seventh, EIU cut the lead to five runs on an RBI single down the left field line by Prichard. Prichard was 4-for-5 in the game.
After EIU extended the inning on an error by Tennessee Tech,
Lindy Milkowski hit her third grand slam of the season to bring EIU to within one run at 15-14.
Riley Dittmar followed as the next batter and hit a solo home run to right center to tie the game.
In the eighth
Morgan Lewis led off with an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Megan Burton setting the table for Prichard's game winning hit.
TTU opened the game swinging hot bats as they scored three runs in the top of the first with home runs by Carmen Betts and Sydney Love-Baker.
The Golden Eagles added nine runs in the top of the second, Sydney Dukes and Savannah Talley had the big hits of the inning for TTU. Dukes had a two-run double while Talley delivered a three-run home run.
Tennessee Tech pounded out six home runs in the opener with Abby Buettner and Shelby Penning hitting solo shots in the sixth before Dukes had a solo home run in the seventh. Dukes and Talley both had three hits to lead TTU.
EIU chipped away at the lead during the game with three runs in the second, two in the thid and three more in the sixth.
Rachel Kaufman had a three run home run in the sixth for the Panthers.
Milkowski and
Morgan Lewis both added three hits for EIU with Milkowski picking up two doubles to go with her grand slam.
Alexa Rehmeier faced one batter in the eighth and recorded the out for the win to improve to 11-9.
Alyssa Arden started the game and returned in the eighth suffering the loss to fall to 13-12.
EIU 10, TTU 4
Eastern Illinois used its game one mometum to jump to out an early 4-1 lead in the first inning as the Panthers completed the Sunday sweep with a 10-4 win.
Lindy Milkowski had a two-run double in the first as she contined her big power day at the plate. The catcher finished the day 2-for-4 at the plate.
Rachel Kaufman and
Abi Stahlhut added RBI singles in the inning to give EIU the 4-1 lead.
TTU responed in the top of the second to tie the game at 4-4. Mackenzie Fitzgerald had a two-run double for the big hit of the inning.
Milkowski delivered an RBI single in the second to give EIU a lead it would never relinquish.
Kendall Fields had RBI doubles in the third and fourth innings while
Maddie Swart added an RBI double in the sixth.
Fields and Kaufman both had three hits to lead EIU as the Panthers finished with 16 hits in the second game.
Alexa Rehmeier pitched 5.2 innings of scoreless relief to pick up her second win of the day improving to 12-9 on the year.
Haeli Bryson suffered the loss in the circle falling to 6-5. Bryson picked up two of the five hits for the Golden Eagles offense.
