MOREHEAD, Ky. – After its first two scheduled home dates were impacted by weather and field conditions, the Morehead State softball team will finally play at University Field for the first time this season on Wednesday when it entertains Eastern Kentucky for a single contest at 3 p.m.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=cca6d0ab-7e6e-4e71-98b2-827a4a70bcfc

Wednesday's game will mark the first time the longtime arch rivals will meet as members of different conferences. After serving as one of the inaugural members of the Ohio Valley Conference, EKU switched affiliations this past July and now its athletic programs reside in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

"The girls are excited to be on their home field to play EKU," said MSU's fourth-year head coach Samantha Jones. "It'll give us a little bit of an advantage due to the girls knowing the field since they've been practicing on it all year."

Morehead State (0-15) is coming off a two-game weekend at the Purple-Gold Invitational in Greenville, N.C. The Eagles were to play four times, but Saturday's contests were washed out due to rain. MSU led host East Carolina 1-0 through three complete innings before that game was canceled. The Blue and Gold came back on Sunday and dropped a pair of outings in five innings to Bryant 13-2 and Rider 23-9. The latter was the most runs Morehead State had scored since defeating Ohio-Chillicothe 13-0 and 14-0 (both in five innings) on Mar. 4, 2020. The season was canceled two games and eight days later.

As she has done since the season-opening tournament, senior catcher Peyton Slater paces the Eagles offensively with a .310 batting average, a .429 slugging percentage, six RBI and three extra-base hits. Freshman left fielder Ieesha Christian is the team's only other player hitting above .300 (.304). Christian leads the squad with four stolen bases. As a team, MSU is hitting .215 and is 18-for-25 in base-stealing attempts.

Sophomore Lennon Spicer paces MSU in the circle. She is 0-8 with a 6.20 ERA, but has 35 strikeouts and just 23 walks in 40.2 innings. Her strikeouts-per-seven-inning ratio is ninth in the Ohio Valley Conference at 6.02. The Eagle pitching has struggled this season. The team sports a 7.08 ERA and has 58 strikeouts and 66 walks in 88 innings of play.

Eastern Kentucky (4-18) has not fared much better than the Eagles this spring. The Colonels have only won two of their last nine outings, including posting a 1-4 mark at the Alabama State Invitational from Mar. 4-6 and a 1-3 record in four contests from Thursday to Sunday in the Bluegrass Classic, which took place both in Lexington and Louisville. EKU's wins during that stretch came over Valparaiso (4-1 in Lexington) on Mar. 11 and Eastern Illinois (13-11 in Montgomery, Ala.) on Mar. 5. Earlier this season it also toppled Nicholls (3-2) and Chattanooga (11-5). Eastern Kentucky lost its most recent contest to Indiana 7-6 on Sunday in Louisville.

The Colonels are batting .221 as a team, while their opponents post a .344 average. Senior outfielder Sammi Miller tops the squad at .367. She also sits second on the team in runs (nine), RBI (nine) and walks (14). Freshman utility player Maggie Pertee is next in hitting at .317. She also leads the club having scored 11 times. Senior first baseman Carly Robinson and sophomore utility player Jasmine Miller each have a team-high two home runs. Robinson also tops the Colonels with 10 RBI.

Freshman Lauren Narvaez boasts a squad-best 2.80 ERA. However, the true workhorse is senior Samantha Reynoso, who has pitched 53 innings, and owns a 2-7 record and a 5.81 ERA. Senior Bethany Todd also has seen time in the circle. She is 1-8 this year with an 8.51 ERA. Reynoso has 23 strikeouts with Todd just one behind. Narvaez sits with 13. Reynoso has allowed 19 walks, with Narvaez at 14 and Todd at 35.

"EKU is a tough opponent, even though their record may not show the talent they have on their team. They have played some very tough competition in preseason to prepare for their conference," said Jones. "I expect a very competitive game. Our pitchers need to do a great job of keeping their hitters off balance and our hitters need to do a good job of putting people on base and having timely hits, as well as (having) our defense backing up our pitchers.

"I'm excited to see what our girls do after a great week of practice and having a little bit of recovery (on Monday) from this past weekend."

The two foes first met in 1993 and, with the exception of the Covid-shortened season of 2020, have played every year since. The Eagles won the first two contests, both played in Richmond, but the Colonels own the series advantage 25-65, including a 13-23 edge in Morehead.

The pair have faced four times since coach Samantha Jones became the Eagles' head coach in 2019, with EKU winning each of those affairs, but this will be the first time under Jones the two will square off in Morehead.

Eastern Kentucky has won the last 14 and nine in a row at MSU, but they have not met at University Field since Apr. 6, 2018, when the Colonels took both ends of a doubleheader 7-0 and 14-2 in six innings. Morehead State's last victory against EKU came in a doubleheader in Richmond on Mar. 28 2015 (7-4 and 6-5). The Eagles most recent home win in the series came on Apr. 7, 2011, when they captured a 12-6 single-game decision.

Longtime head coach Jane Worthington is now in her 30th season piloting in the Colonels. She is the only head coach in the program's history and has over 800 wins in her career.

Morehead State opens OVC play this weekend as the club travels to Charleston, Ill., for a three-game series against Eastern Illinois. The teams will meet once on Saturday for a 5 p.m. ET tilt, before facing off in a doubleheader on Sunday with the first pitch slated for 3 p.m. ET.