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Eastern Illinois (40-17) Softball Upcoming Schedule

February 7-9 at Incarnate Word Tournament – San Antonio, Texas
Friday, Feb. 7 at 10 am vs Prairie View A&M (29-19) … Live Stats
Friday, Feb. 7 at 2:30 pm at Incarnate Word (34-17) … Live Stats  |  Watch ESPN+
Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12:15 pm vs. UT Arlington (23-34) … Live Stats
Saturday, Feb. 8 at 4:45 pm at Incarnate Word … Live Stats
Sunday Feb. 9 at 10 am vs. Prairie View A&M) … Live Stats


ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois opens the 2025 season at the Incarnate Word Tournament.  The Panthers won 40 games last season to win the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship before losing in the OVC Tournament Championship game.  EIU had won the OVC Tournament in 2023 to make the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance.  EIU will open the season against Prairie View A&M which was last year's SWAC regular season champion.  The tournament also features a 34-win Incarnate Word team and UT Arlington.

QUICK HITTER NOTES: 
Eastern Illinois returns OVC Player of the Year Kendall Grover as the junior third baseman ranked among the OVC leaders in most offensive categories hitting .354 with 18 doubles, ten home runs, 46 RBI, 20 stolen bases and 47 runs scored last season.  She was the OVC leader in home runs while ranking second in the league in RBI, doubles, hits and runs scored.  Grover earned NFCA Third Team All-Region honors landing in five EIU single season top ten record lists.  She was second on the team with 21-multiple hit games and ended the year with a 12-game active streak of reaching base in consecutive games.  She was recently named to the D1Softball Preseason List of the nation's top players at third base ranked 13th.
 
Sophomore McKenzie Oslanzi earned OVC Freshman of the Year honors last season while being named to the OVC first team.  She capped her year earning Freshmen All-America honors and being named to the NFCA Freshman Top 25 list.  The right-handed pitcher led the OVC with a 21-5 record becoming just the eighth pitcher in school history with 20 or more wins.  Her 21 wins ranked tied for fourth on the EIU single season list.  She was second in the OVC in ERA at 1.70 while ranking third in strike outs with 149.  Oslanzi posted the second-best single season win percentage in school history in the circle.  She finished the season ranked 20th in the NCAA in strike out to walk ratio (149 K's / 29 BB) while ranking 23rd in wins, 25th in fewest walks allowed per seven innings and 32nd in earned run average.
 
Karson Davey returns after earning second All-OVC honors last season in the outfield.  Davey played in 54 games making 47 starts in the outfield.  She led the OVC in sacrifice bunts with 12 which ranked sixth on the EIU single season record book.  Davey scored 22 runs with 14 RBI and seven doubles.  She was 14-of-17 in stolen base opportunities with the stolen bases eighth in the OVC for the season.
 
Eastern Illinois has four position players returning that were starters last season with Kendall Grover (3B), Briana Gonzalez (SS), Karson Davey (CF) and Sophie Cerveny (LF).  In addition, EIU has returning players who did start games in Sophia Olman (C ), Marybeth Dyson (RF) and Mia Mazzola (1B).  Throw in McKenzie Oslanzi who both hit for herself and served as the DP in games she did not pitch and EIU has eight veteran offensive players back.  From that group the Panthers generated 153 runs, 43 doubles, 21 home runs, 147 RBI and 58 stolen bases.  As a group those players accounted for 56 percent of the Panthers offense last season with 245 hits. 
 
In the circle EIU returns first team All-OVC pitcher McKenzie Oslanzi who developed into the staff ace with 21 wins and an ERA of 1.70.  The Panthers also return junior Karlie McKenzie who appeared in 17 games last season with 4-0 record and 3.15 ERA.  She will battle with incoming pitchers Bryanna French (Jr / Lake Land College) ad Rylie Schipp (Fr / Heritage Hills HS) to settle into the additional spots in the pitching rotation.  French was a second team NJCAA All-American last season going 22-6 with a 1.06 ERA and 152 strike outs.  Schipp was an All-District and All-Southwest Indiana selection last year in high school.
 
While Eastern Illinois returns a good portion of its offensive line-up and number pitcher, the Panthers have added a mixture of players that will look to make contributions early in the season.  The Panthers freshmen class includes Kira Manganello (C ), Morgan Hance (OF), Jersey Summers (OF), Abbi Hatton (UT), Maddux Marshall (INF) and Ava Hartman (OF).   EIU also added two players from the junior college ranks in Jenna Teakert (So / C) that played last year at Florida Southwestern State College and Alisha Frederick (So / INF) that played last year at Parkland College.

 Eastern Illinois has gotten off to a mixed start in each of the last five seasons as they prepare to open the 2025 campaign.  Last season EIU opened the year 5-0 winning the Mardi Gras Mambo Tournament.  The previous season in 2023 EIU started 0-5 losing all five games at the Incarnate Word Tournament.   The prior three years included a pair of 4-1 starts in 2020 and 2022 sandwiched around a 1-4 start during the 2021 season. 
 
STREAKS & LEADERS (RETURNING)
Multiple Hit Games:  Kendall Grover (21), Karson Davey (9), McKenzie Oslanzi (9), Sophie Cerveny (8)
Multiple RBI Games:  Kendall Grover (12), Briana Gonzalez (11), McKenzie Oslanzi (5), Karson Davey (4)
Active Hitting Streaks:   Kendall Grover (3)
Active Reached Base Streak:  Kendall Grover (12), Marybeth Dyson (2)
 
SEASON LONG NOTES
Senior shortstop Briana Gonzalez was named the Panthers preseason player to watch by the Ohio Valley Conference as part of its preseason information released in late January.  Gonzalez started all 57 games last season at shortstop, one of two EIU players to start every game during the season.  She hit .299 at the plate ranking fourth in the OVC in RBI with 39 and tied for third in the conference with eight home runs.  During her sophomore season (2023) she set the school for being hit by a pitch in a season with 17, that total ranked 12th in the NCAA that season.
 
Eastern Illinois was picked to finish third in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll released in late January.  The Panthers received five of the 20 first place votes in the poll and were just one total point behind Southern Indiana which was picked second.  Southast Missouri was selected as the preseason OVC favorite.  EIU won the OVC regular season title last year, the third in program history, posting 40 wins.   The Panthers were the OVC Tournament Champion in 2023 making the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois opens the 2025 season playing at the Incarnate Word Tournament in San Antonio, Texas.  It marks the second time in the last three years that EIU has opened the season at the UIW event.  The Panthers have previously faced two of the three teams in this year's tournament field.  Friday's season opener with Prairie View A&M will be the first between the programs.  EIU has a 2-2 record against Incarnate Word with the school's last meeting in 2023 at the UIW Tournament. This will be the fifth meeting between EIU and UT Arlington.  EIU beat the Mavericks 1-0 in last year's season opener with UTA now holding a 3-2 series lead.

ON DECK:  Eastern Illinois will travel to the Troy Trojan Classic on February 14-16 for the second of four early season tournaments.  EIU will face host Troy, Western Kentucky and Alabama State in the tournament field.   Additional early season tournaments include the Louisiana Monroe Warhawk Invitational (Feb. 21-23) and Florida International Softball Classic (Feb. 28 – March 2). 

HEAD COACH: Eastern Illinois softball will be under the direction of Kristi Paulson and Dan Paulson.  The husband / wife duo serve as co-head coaches of the program and are in their first season leading Eastern Illinois.  The couple came to EIU following a successful stint at the Junior College level winning 205 games in five years as head coaches at Parkland College.  They guided the team to three NJCAA World Series appearances in four full seasons with their first season cancelled due to COVID 19 in 2020.  They won 50-plus games in three seasons finishing 7th (2021), 5th (2023) and 9th (2024) in the nation each of those seasons. This past year (2024) their coaching staff was named the NJCAA Coaching Staff of the Year by the NFCA going 58-6.  Both Kristi and Dan attended Eastern Illinois as undergraduate students.