OXFORD, Ala. – Eastern Illinois is heading to the Ohio Valley Conference softball championship game for the first time since 1999 as the Panthers had a 1-0 win over UT Martin in the Friday winner's bracket game on Friday.
Aniya Holt came through with a pinch-hit single to left center field in the top of the seventh as the Panthers pushed across the only run of the game.
Lindy Milkowski opened the seventh with a single up the middle with
Riley Dittmar coming in to pinch-run. Dittmar moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Amber Cieplinski and then to third on a ground out in the infield by
Morgan Lewis.  Holt then delivered the game winning pinch-hit with two outs.Â
Briana Gonzalez followed with a single and Kallie Pickens made a nice defensive play on a hard-hit ball down the third base line by EIU pinch-hitter
Macey McElravy to end the inning.
In the circle
Olivia Price was solid for the second straight game as she scattered four UT Martin hits to improve to 15-4 on the season.  Katie Dreiling (13-8) allowed five hits for the Skyhawks to take the loss.
Gonzalez was 2-for-3 for the Panthers. Kaci Fuller had two hits for UTM.
EIU will play for the OVC Championship on Saturday with an 11 am game against the winner of the SIUE/UT Martin game on Friday evening. Â
EIU won the regular season OVC championship in 2011 and 2013 but did not advance to the OVC Tournament Championship in either year. EIU did finish as the OVC Tournament runner-up in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
EIU is now 33-19.
