Eastern Illinois softball dropped the first of two Saturday games falling to UT Arlington 9-1. The Panthers lost the night cap 7-3 to host Incarnate Word.
UT ARLINGTON 9, EIU 1
The Panthers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a RBI single by
Sophie Cerveny which scored
Kira Manganello.
The Mavericks would keep the EIU offense off the board the remainder of the game taking the lead 4-1 with four runs in the bottom of the second. Mia McNulty and Kailee Bautista each drove in runs in the inning.
UTA added an unearned run in the third to push their lead to 5-1. Home runs in the fifth and sixth innings would carry the Mavericks to the win. Elizabeth Baylor had a three-run homer in the fifth with Marley Neisis connecting for a solo shot in the sixth.
Kendall Grover picked up two hits for EIU as the Panthers dropped to 1-2.
UT Arlington improved to 4-0.
INCARNATE WORD 7, EIU 3
In the second game of the day Eastern Illinois rallied from down 3-0 after two to tie the game at 3-3 before eventually dropping their second game of the tournament to host Incarnate Word losing 7-3.
UIW scored three in the second with the big hit coming on a two-run single by Prisais Quintero.
The Panthers cut into the lead with a single run in each of the next three innings.
Kendall Grover had an RBI double in the third and drove in a run in the fifth scoring
Sophie Cerveny.
Sandwiched in between was a solo home run by
Abbi Hatton in the fourth, the Panthers first long ball of the season.
UIW answered in the bottom of the fifth with a home run by Victoria Altamirano. The Cardinals added an insurance run with an RBI double to left center by Jaisy Caceres.
In the bottom of the sixth UIW had two more runs improving to 2-2 on the season. Jillian Gutierrez drove in one of the runs in the sixth leading UIW with three hits. Bella Mitchell (2-0) picked up the win.
EIU fell to 1-3 on the year with Grover going 2-for-3. Hatton,
McKenzie Oslanzi and Cerveny all had hits in the game for EIU. Oslanzi suffered the loss falling to 0-1 on the season.
