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Eastern Illinois softball split its opening two games on Friday at the San Diego Classic.  EIU lost its opener 10-2 to Colorado State before some seventh inning heroics led to a 1-0 win over Long Island in the second game of the day.

COLORADO STATE 10, EASTERN ILLINOIS 2 (5 INN)
Eastern Illinois softball scored twice in the first inning before falling in its opening game at the San Diego Classic 10-2 on Friday to Colorado State. 
 
Rachel Kaufman delivered the big blow for the Panthers in the top of the first scoring Abbey Crain and Emily Konkel.   Crain reached on a single up the middle while Konkel was in as a pinch-runner for Jadin Justman who reached on a single to right.  Those three hits would account for three of the four hits the Panthers strung together against Colorado State starter Sydney Hornbuckle (2-1).
 
EIU's other hit came in the fifth with a single by Kendall Grover.
 
Colorado State answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first against EIU starter Olivia Price (2-1).  Molly Gates delivered an RBI single before the Rams scored the next two runs on one of two errors EIU committed in the game.
 
The Rams added six more runs in the bottom of the second as Danielle Serna had the big hit of the inning with a three-run triple.  CSU added its final run in the fourth on an RBI single by Hornbuckle.
 
EIU fell to 5-1 on the season.  CSU improved to 4-2.
 
EASTERN ILLINOIS 1,  LONG ISLAND 0
Briana Gonzalez had an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to lift EIU to a 1-0 win over Long Island in the Panthers second game of the day.
 
With the game scoreless heading into the final frame, Mia Mazzola reached with one out after being hit by a pitch.  She would advance to second on a wild pitch with two outs before Gonzalez drove the game winning hit through the left side.
 
Gonzalez had one of four hits in the game for EIU.   Mazzola had a hit and Kendall Grover the other two.
 
In the circle, freshman McKenzie Oslanzi was sharp throwing a complete game, four-hit shutout to improve to 3-0 on the season.  She had 11 strikeouts while issuing just one walk.  Alyssa O'Donnell suffered the loss for the Sharks falling to 1-2.
 
LIU had a runner reach third base with two outs in both the first and seventh innings.  Oslanzi struck out Gabby Padilla to end the threat in the first.  In the seventh Mari Narvaiz hit a two-out triple before Oslanzi struck out Emma Niece to end the inning.
 
EIU improved to 6-1.  LIU fell to 4-4.