Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

Eastern Illinois and SIUE softball split their Sunday doubleheader which following the weekend had the Panthers with a one-game lead in the OVC standings heading into the final week of the conference regular season.
 
EIU won the opener 5-4 in ten innings with SIUE bouncing back to win 10-2 in six innings in the second game.
 
EIU heads into the final week of the regular season at 27-19 overall, 18-5 in the OVC.  SIUE is also 27-19 overall, one game back in the OVC race at 17-6 overall.
 
EIU 5, SIUE 4 (10 innings)
In the opener Abbi Hatton drove home Morgan Hance with a walk-off single that scored Hance from second giving EIU the 5-4 extra inning win.
 
Hance led off the 10th with a single up the middle.  She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Sophia Olman before Hatton laced a ball up the middle bringing Hance home to score the game winner.
 
McKenzie Oslanzi (16-11) pitched six innings of three hit relief allowing one unearned run in the top of the seventh to pick up the win.  Oslanzi had nine strikeouts in the win.
 
EIU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the game with two runs in the second.  Hatton drove in the first run with an RBI double followed by Sophie Cerveny's ground out RBI.  Hatton was 2-for-3 in the game, one of three Panthers with two hits.
 
SIUE tied the game with a single run in the third and fourth innings before taking a 3-2 lead in the fifth with leadoff home run by Lauryn Yslava. 
 
The Panthers tied the game in the fifth on a bases loaded walk to Karson Davey and took a 4-3 lead in the sixth on an infield single by Abbey Crain, one of two hits for Crain.  Davey was the other Panther with two hits in the win.
 
SIUE took advantage of a two-out error in the top of the seventh to knot the game at 4-4 and force extra innings.  Kaylynn Salyars and Anna Henderson had two hits each to lead SIUE.  McKayla Anderson (5-8) took the loss pitching four innings of relief.
 
SIUE 10, EIU 2 (6 innings)
In the second game, SIUE took advantage of several EIU errors to blow open the game early during a 10-2 win in six innings.
 
Both teams scored in the opening inning with Anna Henderson delivering an RBI single to plate the Cougars first run.  EIU answered with its two runs in the bottom of the first.  Alisha Frederick had an RBI single and Briana Gonzalez delivered a sacrifice fly.
 
In the opening inning Kiana Villa (6-0) entered for starter Avery Arwood and closed out the game with 5.2 innings of scoreless relief.   Frederick, Karson Davey and Abbey Crain each had two hits for EIU in the second game.
 
In the second SIUE took advantage of what would turn out to be five errors by EIU resulting in a total of seven unearned runs in the game.  Five of those came in the second as the inning was extended by an error.  Kaylynn Salyars had a two-run double in the inning and Anna Henderson closed the scoring in the inning with a two-run home run.
 
McKenzie Oslanzi (16-12) took the loss for EIU allowing just one earned run.  Karlie McKenzie and Bryanna French closed out the contest.
 
SIUE added a run in the third, two in the fourth and one more in the sixth for the run rule win.  Madison Kearns had the big hit in the fourth with a two-run single as she went 4-for-4 in the game.  Anna Henderson was 3-for-4 at the plate.