Eastern Illinois (26-15, 12-2 OVC) Softball Upcoming Schedule
April 21-22 vs. Morehead State (11-21, 6-9 OVC)
April 21 vs. Morehead State at 3 pm … Live Stats | Watch ESPN+
April 21 vs. Morehead State at 5:30 pm … Live Stats | Watch ESPN+
April 22 vs. Morehead State at 1 pm … Live Stats | Watch ESPN+
ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois returns home for Ohio Valley Conference play as the Panthers host Morehead State this weekend at Williams Field. Due to expected weather issues late in the weekend, the series has been shifted to a Friday doubleheader and single game on Saturday. EIU improved to 9-0 in OVC road games with a series sweep at Tennessee Tech last weekend and is currently on a six-game win streak after a midweek doubleheader win at Purdue Fort Wayne. EIU enters the weekend at 26-15 overall, 12-2 in the OVC. Morehead State lost a midweek doubleheader to Eastern Kentucky and enters the series at 11-21 overall, 6-9 in the OVC.
QUICK HITTER NOTES:
Olivia Price was named the Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week for her efforts last week. Price was a factor in three of the Panthers four wins posting a 2-0 record and recording one save. For the season she is EIU's team leader in wins (11), ERA (1.80), innings pitched (85.2) and strike outs (58). This is the second time this season that Price has won the OVC Pitcher of the Week honor. Price is now second in the league in ERA and fourth in wins entering the week. Price continued her solid pitching performances on Wednesday with a complete game win over Purdue Fort Wayne allowing one unearned run. Price has now pitched 17.1 innings without allowing an earned run.
Jaylen Prichard continues to swing a hot bat for the Panthers as the sophomore outfielder extended her current hitting streak to 12 games hitting .500 during four games last week. She then picked up hits in each of the two midweek games to run her current hitting streak to 14 games. Prichard is first on the team in batting average at .356 with six doubles, three triples and one home run. She has also now reached base in 14 consecutive games, her second longest streak of the season. Earlier this year Prichard had a streak of 21 consecutive games reaching base. The 14-game hitting streak by Prichard is the longest on the Panthers roster this season.
Freshman
Kendall Grover hit .667 in four games last week as the freshman third baseman is fourth on the team with a .339 batting average. She added three doubles and a home run to her season total giving her a team-best 11 doubles and five home runs this season. Grover does have 11 multi-hit games this season but had her six game hit streak snapped in the first game at Purdue Fort Wayne. Grover is currently fourth in the OVC in doubles and ranks 11th in the conference in batting average which is the highest among OVC freshmen this season.
Lindy Milkowski belted out two home runs in the game one win at Tennessee Tech on Friday increasing her season total to 13 home runs entering the week. She added another home run at Purdue Fort Wayne to move her season total to 14. She leads the conference in home runs and RBI (40) while ranking 11th in batting average (.339) and fifth in doubles (10). Milkowski's 14 home runs are now second on the EIU single season list.
Megan Burton holds the school single season home run record with 18 during the 2021 season. Milkowski has 23 career home runs which is now tied for sixth on the Panthers all-time list. Her 40 RBI this season are now tied for sixth on the EIU single season list. Last season Milkowski had 46 RBI, a total that ranks second on the EIU single season list.
Eastern Illinois had a big offensive week at the plate in four games as they hit .345 as a team last week with 14 doubles and four home runs. EIU is now hitting .280 as a team this season which ranks third in the OVC. The Panthers do lead the conference in doubles with 66 and home runs with 38. The Panthers are chasing several single season team records they have set over the last couple of years. EIU set the school record for doubles last season with 82. The current 66 doubles rank tied for eighth on the EIU single season list. EIU set its school record for home runs in 2021 with 56. The 36 home runs this season rank fourth on the EIU single season list.
Briana Gonzalez has etched her name in the Eastern Illinois record book this season as she is the Panthers single season leader in reaching base via hit-by-pitch with 16. Gonzalez was hit-by-pitch two additional times on Wednesday at Purdue Fort Wayne after being hit twice during the weekend series at Tennessee Tech to pass the previous mark of 13 set by Rachel Karos in 2006. Gonzalez ranks fourth in the NCAA in hit-by-pitch this year. Evette Morgan of Stetson is the national leader reaching base 19 times followed by Jen Cummings of South Carolina and Lily Fischer of Murray State both with 17. For the season Gonzalez is hitting .226 with five doubles, one triple and three home runs. She does have an on-base percentage of .385.
Aniya Holt continues to return to form for the Panthers after missing almost all of last season and a portion of this year. Holt has been a fixture in the line-up over the last nine games making eight starts in those contests. EIU is 7-2 in those nine games. For the season Holt is hitting .439 with that average climbing to .500 over the last nine games with four doubles, one home run and four walks drawn in that span. Earlier in the season Holt had been one of the Panthers top pinch-hitters going 4-of-6. For the season EIU is hitting .278 in pinch-hitting opportunities.
Ohio Valley Conference play has been good for sophomore outfielder
Riley Dittmar as she has a team-best batting average of .450 in conference play. Dittmar has played in 11 of the Panthers 14 OVC games going 9-for-20 with three RBI. A total of six players are hitting .320 or better in league action with
Aniya Holt (.438) also over .400.
Rachel Kaufman (.381) and
Jaylen Prichard (.320) are tied for the most hits for an EIU player in OVC play.
STREAKS & LEADERS
Multiple Hit Games: Jaylen Prichard (14),
Kendall Grover (11),
Lindy Milkowski (9),
Rachel Kaufman (8)
Multiple RBI Games: Lindy Milkowski (9),
Rachel Kaufman (8),
Jaylen Prichard (5),
Kendall Grover (4),
Briana Gonzalez (3)
Active Hitting Streaks: Jaylen Prichard (14),
Aniya Holt (3)
Active Reached Base Streak: Jaylen Prichard (14),
Lindy Milkowski (13),
Aniya Holt (9),
SEASON LONG NOTES
Olivia Price tossed just the eighth no-hitter in program history with her win over Alabama State on Feb. 17. Price faced the minimum 21 batters with the lone ASU runner reaching on a walk and out on the next play. The last no-hitter was thrown last season by current teammate
Tieghan Morio during a 4-0 win over Alabama A&M. EIU's other no-hitters have been tossed by Jessica Wireman, Coli Turley (2), Stephanie Maday (2) and Hanna Mennega.
Olivia Price and
Lindy Milkowski were named the Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher and Player of the Week (Feb 20) following the Panthers 5-0 performance at the Mardi Gras Classic. Price tossed a no-hitter and worked 10 innings in the circle with a 1.35 ERA. She added 11 strikeouts. Milkowski hit .462 during that tournament with four home runs and eight RBI. She had 17 total plate appearances drawing three walks without being struck out.
Lindy Milkowski was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week for the second time this season after her weekend performance at the Bellarmine Tournament (March 6). In four games played, Milkowski hit .500 with three doubles, three home runs and ten RBI. She had a slugging percentage of 1.250 for the weekend. EIU closed out the tournament with a Monday morning run-rule win over Valparaiso where Milkowski added one hit to finish the weekend hitting .474.
Senior
Morgan Lewis was named the EIU Player to Watch for the upcoming OVC season in the preseason poll. Lewis has battled injuries during parts of the previous two seasons but was an All-OVC Newcomer selection in 2021 leading the OVC in stolen bases. This season Lewis has appeared in 17 games hitting .241 going 7-for-8 in stolen base attempts. EIU does return first team All-OVC performer
Lindy Milkowski and All-OVC Newcomer team member
Alexa Rehmeier from last year's team.
SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois and Morehead State will be meeting for the 71st time when the two schools meet this weekend for an OVC series. EIU has dominated the series in recent years having won 14 straight including three-game series sweeps each of the last two seasons. Morehead State's last win in the series was in March of 2015 when they won the opening game of a doubleheader between the schools. EIU holds a 47-24 all-time series lead.
NEXT UP: Eastern Illinois will host IUPUI for a midweek non-conference series on Tuesday at Williams Field before making an OVC weekend trip to Lindenwood.
HEAD COACH: Tara Archibald is her fourth 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. In 2021 she posted her second straight winning record as EIU finished at 25-19 overall, 16-14 in the OVC. Last season EIU was 25-30 overall, 10-17. The Panthers did qualify for the OVC Tournament marking their first appearance since the 2018 season. Archibald has a career record of 87-74 with an OVC record of 38-33. 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 Huggins and
Toby Ring.
