Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
Eastern Illinois softball blew open both games against Tennessee State early as the Panthers locked up the 2026 Ohio Valley Conference Championship with a weekend sweep of the Lady Tigers. EIU won a pair of run-rule games beating TSU 15-0 and 13-0, both in five innings. EIU ends the regular season at 33-20 overall, 23-3 in the OVC winning their third straight OVC regular season title. TSU ends the season at 2-38 overall, 2-25 in the OVC.
EIU 15, TSU 0
Eastern Illinois scored three runs in the first inning and never looked back as they picked up a 15-0 win over Tennessee State in the first game on Saturday.
Sophia Olman set the tone with her two-run first inning home run; one of four the Panthers launched in the opener. Olman finished the game 4-for-4 with four RBI.
Later in the game
Abbi Hatton connected for a grand slam with solo home runs coming off the bats of
Peyton Dwigans and
Lizzie Stiverson.
Lexie Griffin had three hits followed by Stiverson with two,
Mo Hance with two and
Marybeth Dyson with two.
Karlie McKenzie struck out ten batters to throw the complete game shutout improving to 10-8 in the season.
TSU had three hits in the game with two coming from Hailey Hunt and the other from Dani James. Miriam Gordon (0-8) suffered the loss.
EIU 13, TSU 0
Big innings again carried Eastern Illinois in the second game to complete the weekend sweep with a 13-0 win over TSU.
EIU scored three runs in the first and broke out for six runs in the third inning.
Alisha Frederick had the big hit in the third inning with a two run double.
Frederick was joined with two RBI for EIU by
Sophia Olman,
Mo Hance and
Lexie Griffin. Griffin was the only Panther with multiple hits in the second game as EIU took advantage of ten TSU walks and three hit batters in the game.
Bryanna French (10-6) tossed four scoreless innings for the win with
Rylie Schipp closing the final inning.
Alexis Woods had two of the three TSU hits in the game with Noelani Wilkerson adding the other. Tianna Salcido (0-10) took the loss.
