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ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Kendall Grover continued her hot weekend at the plate for Eastern Illinois but the Panthers could not hold the lead in the seventh inning falling 5-4 to Lindenwood in the final game of the weekend series.
 
Grover was 2-for-2 in the game scoring three of the four Panthers runs as she was one of two EIU players in the game with multiple hits.
 
EIU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with the first four Panthers batters reaching in the inning.   Jaylen Prichard, Rachel Kaufman and Lindy Milkowski all had walks issued by Lindenwood starter Avery Wapp.  Milkowski's walk was with bases loaded to produce the first run.   Grover had singled as the second batter in the inning.  Morgan Lewis drove in the second run of the frame with a run producing ground out.
 
Wapp (5-8) avoided letting EIU have the big inning during the game throwing a complete game.  Alexa Rehmeier (5-4) was solid for six innings for EIU in the circle but ran into issues in the seventh as the opening two batters of the inning singled.  The Lions loaded the bases and EIU's defense made a play at the plate to prevent the first run of the inning from scoring.  A bases loaded walk would give Lindenwood the first of four runs in the inning.   After a pitching change, a pop-up was caught by the wind and carried away from two EIU fielders to drop in for a hit scoring another run to make it 4-3 in favor of EIU.   The next batter popped up in the infield for the second out of the inning.  Chloe Honchar laced a double to the left center gap as the next batter to give Lindenwood the come-from-behind win.
 
Lindenwood's other run came on a solo home run in the sixth by Morgan Gersch.  Dallis Darnell was 3-for-4 for the Lions.
 
EIU extended its lead to 3-1 in the fifth with a Macey McElravy pinch-hit RBI scoring Grover.  Grover then scored the Panthers fourth run in the top of the seventh scoring on a double by Aniya Holt that was a fly ball caught by the wind and directed away from two Lindenwood fielders. 
 
Briana Gonzalez was the other EIU player with multiple hits going 2-for-3 to join Grover's performance at the plate.
 
EIU falls to 30-18 overall, 15-5 in the OVC.  Lindenwood is 16-28, 8-12 in the OVC.   EIU will host Southeast Missouri next weekend for its final series of the regular season.