Eastern Illinois softball will be making its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and the Panthers will travel just up Interstate-57 for their opening round game at host Northwestern.
EIU will be one of four teams playing in Evanston this Friday-Sunday with a 2:30 pm game time on ESPN+. Ticket information is scheduled to be released by Northwestern on Monday afternoon and will be published on EIUPanthers.com along with social media links.
EIU will face Big Ten Tournament Champion Northwestern, that enters with a 38-11 record. Also in the Evanston Regional are Miami (Ohio) from the Mid-American Conference (37-18) and Kentucky from the SEC (30-20-1).
EIU finished the season at 34-19 and won the OVC Tournament Championship this past weekend with three straight wins allowing just one run to its opponents.
EIU is 2-8 all-time against Northwestern with the last time the two schools played coming in 1998.
EIU is 3-8 all-time against Miami last meeting in 2020. EIU is 1-2 against Kentucky, the last match-up in 2016.
Full Schedule (all times listed in central):
Friday, May 19
Game 1 - Kentucky vs. Miami (OH) - 12 p.m. CT - SEC Network
Game 2 - Northwestern vs. Eastern Illinois - 2:30 p.m. CT - ESPN+
Saturday, May 20
Game 3 - Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 - 12 p.m. CT
Game 4 - Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 - 2:30 p.m. CT
Game 5 - Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 - 5 p.m. CT
Sunday, May 21
Game 6 - Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 5 - 3 p.m. CT
Game 7 (if necessary) - 5:30 p.m. CT
