Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
Eastern Illinois softball needed the if-necessary game on Saturday for the second straight year to capture the Panthers second straight Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship. EIU won 5-2 over Lindenwood.
EIU will learn its NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday night at 6 pm (CT) on ESPN2.
In the championship game,
Rylan Gick started the game before giving way to
Karlie McKenzie (13-9) to close out the game with four scoreless innings of work. With the win EIU improved to 36-21. Lindenwood wraps up its season at 32-24.
McKenzie was named the OVC Tournament MVP for the second straight year joined by
Abbi Hatton,
Sophia Olman and
Bryanna French on the OVC All-Tournament team.
The Lions jumped on top in the bottom of the first with a Kylee Crowder RBI single to left field.
EIU took a 2-1 lead in the second inning, scoring its first run on the first of five Lindenwood errors in the game before a
Chloe Wamboldt RBI.
Crowder tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third driving in her second run of the game as she went 2-for-4. Tori Hatton also finished the second game with two hits for the Lions.
EIU took its final lead with
Viola Smith's infield RBI which scored
Mo Hance from third in the fourth. Wamboldt added her second RBI later in the inning. The Panthers final run was delivered with a
Lizzie Stiverson sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Hance was the lone EIU player with multiple hits while also scoring two runs.
Lexie Griffin also scored twice.
Ava Risum (3-6) suffered the loss in relief for Lindenwood.
Lindenwood was able to force the if-necessary game with a 5-0 win in the opener.
Kylee Crowder put Lindenwood on the board in the first inning before pushing the Lions lead to 2-0 with an RBI single in the fifth. Crowder had two hits as the first four batters in the Lindenwood line-up combined for ten of the 11 Lions hits.
In the sixth Danielle Franz had the other Lindenwood hit outside the top four hitters connecting for a two-run home run. Tori Hatton drove in the final Lions run in the sixth.
EIU was limited to three hits in the game coming off the bats of
Lizzie Stiverson,
Abbi Hatton and
Sophia Olman (double).
Karlie McKenzie (12-9) took the loss for EIU.
