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Eastern Illinois (17-8, 5-1 OVC) Softball Upcoming Schedule

March 19-20
Tuesday, March 19 at IUPUI (5-21) - 1 pm … Live Stats   
Tuesday, March 19 at IUPUI - 3:30 pm … Live Stats  
Wednesday, March 20 at Purdue (11-14) - 4 pm … Live Stats   


ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois travels to Indiana for midweek games as the Panthers play at IUPUI for a doubleheader on Tuesday before a single game at Purdue on Wednesday.   The Panthers improved to 17-8 overall sweeping a three-game weekend Ohio Valley Conference series against UT Martin at home.   IUPUI enters the week at 5-21 overall.  Purdue is 11-14 on the season.

QUICK HITTER NOTES: 
Rachel Kaufman was hot at the plate all weekend in the series against UT Martin as the graduate student collected multiple hits in all three games of the weekend hitting .667.  She had one double and drove home three runs.  At one time on Saturday Kaufman reached base in six consecutive plate appearances with four hits and two walks.   On Sunday she reached in her first four plate appearances with two hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.  For the season Kaufman is now hitting .360 with seven doubles, four home runs and 23 RBI.
 
Olivia Price tossed her second complete game shutout of the season in the second game on Saturday as the Panthers picked up a 3-0 win over UT Martin.   Price is now 5-6 on the season with her other shutout win a 1-0 decision over UT Arlington in the season opener.  The senior moved into a four-way tie for eighth on the EIU career shutouts list as she now has 11 for her Panther career.  She needs four more wins this season to join the EIU career top ten for victories.
 
McKenzie Oslanzi continued to be dominant in the circle this season as the freshman picked up two wins as bookends of the Panthers weekend sweep.  Oslanzi is now 11-1 on the season with a 0.74 ERA.  She has 89 strike outs while issuing only nine walks this season.  During the weekend series she pitched 12.2 innings allowing one run while striking out 12 and issuing no walks.
 
Karson Davey came up with clutch hits all weekend for the Panthers again as she hit .364 over three games against UT Martin.  Davey drove in the first run of the weekend in Saturday's game one win.  She came back on Sunday driving in three of the Panthers 11 runs to finish as the team-leader for the weekend with four RBI.  On the season Davey is fourth on the team with a .313 batting average.
 
Kendall Grover had big hits over the weekend as she had a double and home run while driving in three.  On Saturday she connected for a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth inning to carry EIU to the 2-1 extra inning victory.   On Sunday she delivered a two-run homer in the Panthers 11-5 win.  It was fourth home run of the season for Grover which is tied for the team lead.  Grover is hitting .318 on the season adding eight doubles and nine stolen bases.
 
Jadin Justman had the other home run of the weekend for Eastern Illinois hitting a two-run shot in Saturday's 3-0 win over the Skyhawks.  Justman leads the Panthers with a .379 batting averaging with five doubles and three home runs.  She extended her consecutive games streak of reaching base to 18-straight getting onboard in all three weekend contests.
 
Sophia Olman came up big in two pinch hit at-bats during the weekend against UT Martin.  Olman was called up twice during the weekend series in a situation to lay down a sacrifice bunt.  In both opportunities the freshman beat out the throw to first for an infield hit.  Those were Olman's first two collegiate hits as she had entered the weekend 0-for-2 on the season.


STREAKS & LEADERS
Multiple Hit Games:  Kendall Grover (11), Rachel Kaufman (10), Jadin Justman (7), Marama Makea (5), 
Multiple RBI Games:  Rachel Kaufman (7), Briana Gonzalez (4), Jadin Justman (4), Kendall Grover (4)
Active Hitting Streaks:  Karson Davey (6), Rachel Kaufman (4), Sophie Cerveny (4)
Active Reached Base Streak:  Jadin Justman (18), Karson Davey (6) 
 
SEASON LONG NOTES
Graduate student Rachel Kaufman was named the preseason Player to Watch for EIU in the Ohio Valley Conference this season as part of the league's preseason information release.  Kaufman was a second team All-OVC selection at Utility last season playing both the DH role while also starting in the circle.   At the plate she hit .323 with seven home runs and 26 RBI.   In the circle she had some of the best control ranking among the NCAA leaders in fewest number of walks issued allowing just 15 free passes in 106.2 innings in the circle.   Kaufman was 9-6 overall with a 2.17 ERA and 59 strikeouts.
 
Eastern Illinois was selected second in the OVC preseason poll. The Panthers finished behind defending regular season league champion Southeast Missouri in the preseason voting.  The Panthers were the OVC Tournament Champion last season winning three straight games in Oxford, Alabama to punch their first ticket to the NCAA Tournament.  Olivia Price was named the OVC Tournament MVP after three straight complete games in the OVC Tournament allowing just one run in 21 innings of work.
Rachel Kaufman was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week after the graduate student had hits in all five games to help power the Panthers to a 5-0 start to the season. Kaufman hit .500 (9-of-18) at the plate with two doubles and a home run.  She had multiple hits in three of the five games and extended her current hitting streak to six games dating back to last season.  She drove in five of EIU's 25 runs for the weekend drawing one walk to finish with a .526 on-base percentage.   Kaufman did not strike out in 19 plate appearances.
 
Freshman pitcher McKenzie Oslanzi was named the Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week in week one after helping the Panthers secure a 5-0 start to the season.  She appeared in three of the five games for the weekend factoring in the decision in each game she appeared.  She made her first collegiate start picking up a win over Green Bay with ten strikeouts in her debut. She would pick up a win in relief against Montana and then a save in relief in the victory over Providence.  For the weekend Oslanzi had an ERA of 1.14 with 16 strikeouts in 12.1 innings of work. 
 
Freshman pitcher McKenzie Oslanzi won her second straight OVC Pitcher of the Week honor as she pitched well at the San Diego Classic.  Oslanzi had a complete game shutout win over Long Island University.  She followed that up with a no-decision in the start against San Diego and pitched in relief against Southern Utah.   For the weekend she had 22 strikeouts in 16.1 innings of work.  She leads the OVC in innings pitched, wins and strikeouts while ranking third in the league in ERA.
 
Freshman pitcher McKenzie Oslanzi added a third straight Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week honor in week three as she posted a 3-0 record at the WKU Hilltopper Classic.  She pitched 15 innings with 15 strike outs allowing just one run and issuing just one walk. For the weekend she had an ERA of 0.47.  
 
Kendall Grover powered the EIU offense at the Alabama State Black & Gold Tournament earning OVC Player of the Week honors. Grover had multiple hits in all four games giving her eight multi-hit games this season.  Grover hit .563 for the weekend going 9-of-16 at the plate with six of her nine hits for extra bases. Grover had four doubles and two home runs while driving home nine.   She also set the table for the Panthers offense in the lead-off spot scoring seven runs and going 3-of-3 on stolen bases.
 
 
SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois travels to the state of Indiana and will play two opponents it has previously faced.  EIU opens the midweek with a doubleheader at IUPUI.  EIU holds a 25-8 all-time series lead having won nine straight in the series.   EIU and Purdue will meet on Wednesday.  The Boilermakers hold a 5-1 all-time series lead with the last meeting between the schools in 2001.  EIU's win in the series was in 1996 at the SIU Saluki Tournament.

ON DECK:  Eastern Illinois returns home to host Western Illinois for a three-game weekend series at Williams Field on Saturday and Sunday. 

HEAD COACH: Tara Archibald is her fifth season as the head coach at Eastern Illinois.   Last season she led EIU to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance as the Panthers posted a 34-21 record winning the OVC Tournament.  Archibald has a career record of 112-88 with an OVC record of 47-38.  She won her 100th career game against Providence on Feb. 11, 2024.  Archibald is a 2004 graduate of Southern Illinois where she played softball for the Salukis helping the team make the 2003 NCAA Tournament.  She hails from a softball family with her father, Gerry Glasco, the head coach at Louisiana.  She has coaching stops at both the high school and collegiate ranks.   She is assisted by Lasaira Daniels, Toby Ring and Macey McElravy.