Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
Karson Davey moved from first to third in the bottom of the 10th inning on a bunt
Briana Gonzalez. She came home on a ground ball hit by
Morgan Hance as the Panthers picked up a 5-4 win over SIUE to advance to the championship game of the 2025 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Peoria, Illinois.
SIUE struck first in the back-and-forth contest with two unearned runs in the top of the third with Emma Henderson driving in the first Cougars run with a sacrifice fly. Lauryn Yslava followed with an RBI double, one of her two hits in the game.
EIU answered in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run home run by
Abbi Hatton to straight away centerfield scoring
Sophia Olman.
In the top of the ninth, SIUE again jumped out to a two-run lead with a Raegan Duncan RBI double followed by an infield single by Kaylynn Salyars, Salyars had three hits to lead SIUE, Duncan added two.
The Panthers rallied once again in the bottom of the ninth as Olman and Hatton both reached to open the inning, moving to third on a ground out by
Sophie Cerveny.
Abbey Crain delivered an RBI single up the middle for the first EIU run with a
Kendall Grover sacrifice fly tying the game at 4-4. Crain was the lone EIU player with two hits while Olman scored two of EIU's five runs.
Both teams starting pitchers gave way to the bullpen in the tenth as
McKenzie Oslanzi worked nine innings for EIU and Avery Arwood countered with nine for the Cougars.
In the top of the tenth
Karlie McKenzie pitched a scoreless frame and earned her tenth win of the season when the Panthers won it in the bottom of the tenth. McKenzie improved to 10-3 as EIU improved to 33-19.
Kiana Villa (6-1) suffered the loss as the Cougars dropped to 30-21.
