Eastern Illinois softball opened the 2025 season with a Friday split on the first day of the Incarnate Word Tournament in San Antonio, Texas.
The Panthers had a dramatic win in game one of the season beating Prairie View A&M 4-3 in nine innings before falling 6-3 to host Incarnate Word in the second game.
EIU 4, PRAIRIE VIEW 3 (9 INNINGS)
Relief pitcher
Bryanna French (1-0) forced a double play to end the ninth inning after starter
McKenzie Oslanzi worked out of a jam in the eighth stranding a Prairie View runner at third base to end the frame.
In the bottom of the ninth
Kendall Grover reached to open the inning on a hit-by-pitch.Ā
Karson Davey laid down a sacrifice bunt but the throw hit her in the back running down the line with the ball bouncing away.Ā Grover advanced to third and eventually scored as Davey got in a run-down between first and second.
The inning capped a rally that saw EIU trailing 2-0 and then 3-1.Ā Prairie View took a 2-0 lead in the second on a two-run double by Janaiya Thomas.Ā They extended the lead to 3-1 in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Isabella Rodriguez.Ā Ā Ā Thomas had two of Prairie View's six hits in the game.
EIU scored in the third on an RBI single by
Abbi Hatton.Ā The Panthers tied the game in the sixth with a pair of unearned runs on a two-run double by Davey who was 2-for-4 in the game.
INCARNATE WORD 6, EIU 3
In the second game EIU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first before Incarnate Word scored in the third, fourth and fifth innings to take the lead.
In the first
Kendall Grover and
Karson Davey reached and both eventually came around to score on consecutive passed balls by UIW.Ā Grover got on base via a walk while Davey had a single to center.Ā She finished 2-for-3, one of two Panthers with two hits in the game.Ā
Abbey Crain was 2-for-4 scoring the EIU run in the fifth.
Incarnate Word scored three in the third to take the lead loading the bases with the middle of the order before two RBI singles and a sacrifice fly by the six, seven and eight batters in the order.Ā
Victoria Altamirano led off the fourth with a solo home run as she was the lone Incarnate Word player with multiple hits going 3-for-4 with two RBI in the game.Ā UIW tacked on two unearned runs in the fifth, Altamirano driving in one of the two.
Bella Mitchell (1-0) had nine strike outs to pick up the win.Ā
Karlie McKenzie (0-1) took the loss for EIU.
