Eastern Illinois had some timely hitting and solid pitching on Sunday as the Panthers won their Oho Valley Conference opening series over Southeast Missouri with a 2-1 win in the rubber game of the series.
McKenzie Oslanzi improved to 9-1 tossing 5.1 innings while allowing one run in the bottom of the sixth. She struck out six batters and issued just one walk.
Rachel Kaufman pitched a perfect final 1.2 innings in the circle for the save as EIU improved to 14-8 overall, 2-1 in the OVC.
Paytience Holman (2-6) suffered the loss for SEMO allowing EIU's first run in the second inning. EIU's other run came off relief pitcher Maddie Carney with a solo home run by
Jadin Justman to left center in the top of the fifth.
Karson Davey singled up the middle to open the second inning. She moved to second on a single by Oslanzi and came around to score on an RBI single to center by
Sophie Cerveny.
Justman was 3-for-4 at the plate to lead EIU while Cerveny was 2-for-3.
Kat Sackett had two of the Redhawks five hits in the game as SEMO fell to 5-16 overall, 1-2 in the OVC.
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