MOREHEAD, Ky. – Morehead State softball brought out the bats in the first contest of a three-game road series with Eastern Illinois, but the team's pitching and defense did not follow suit as the Eagles fell 15-5 in five innings in their Ohio Valley Conference opener at Williams Field in Charleston, Ill.
Morehead State (1-16) got on base in 11 of its 23 plate appearances and scored in three of the five innings, but could not keep Eastern Illinois (14-12) at bay as the Panthers won their seventh consecutive game. EIU also continued its run of success against the Eagles by extending its win streak to 12 in a row and 22 of the past 23 meetings, as well as eighth straight in Charleston.
"I'm very proud of our team for putting up five runs against two of their better pitchers. The ways that we were able to score runs was having timely hits (and) getting people into scoring position," head coach
Samantha Jones said.
EIU benefited from MSU's miscues. It scored six times with two outs and registered five unearned runs. Nine Panthers reached base on walks against only one strikeout.
Junior right fielder
Madeline Gailor got things going for the Blue and Gold by beating out an infield single in the top of the first, but it was the second inning in which the visitors made their move. Senior first baseman
Alexis Strother singled to lead off the frame. Freshman second baseman
Ilencia Lightbody drew a walk and senior third baseman
Peyton Rose reached on a fielder's choice. Junior shortstop
Kirya Kingery singled to load the bases and junior designated player
Taylor Rhea doubled to right field to drive in Lightbody and Rose.
Eastern Illinois scored four times off two hits, three walks, two wild pitches and two errors in its half of the first and then tacked on two more runs in the second on an error and a homer from junior second baseman and reigning OVC Player of the Week, Hannah Cravens.
Freshman left fielder
Ieesha Christian drew a leadoff walk in the third and senior catcher
Peyton Slater got hit by a pitch, the 18th time this season an Eagle drew a free pass after getting plunked.
Freshman
Maya Morris came in to relieve freshman starter
Madi Ogden with two outs in the second, but the Eagles still could not slow the Panther bats as the hosts scored another run in the third.
Morehead State got back on the scoreboard in the fourth. Lightbody reached on a walk, stole second and advanced to third on an error. Two batters later, Kingery doubled to left-center field to score Lightbody. Kingery later scored after a play in which sophomore center fielder
Trinity Spear was thrown out at first on an attempted double steal.
The Panthers scored three runs on three hits with two walks in the bottom of the fourth, all with two outs.
Christian led off the fifth and got all the way to third base courtesy of a dropped fly ball in left field. She scored on a successful double steal with Gailor with no outs, but it was the visitors' lone run of the frame.
Eastern Illinois ended the contest by the 10-run rule with one out in the fifth after a double, single, two walks and a grand slam by sophomore designated player Rachel Kaufman. It sent the Eagles to their 21st straight defeat away from home and their 10th consecutive shortcoming as the true road team.
MSU finished with five hits. Kingery had two, while also driving in a run and scoring. Gailor, who is 4-for-8 in her last three games, added a hit, as did Rhea, who also drove in a pair of runs. Strother tallied the other hit, while Lightbody scored twice, and Christian and Rose each crossed the plate once. Christian, Gailor and Lightbody also had one stolen base apiece.
"Kirya did a great job of getting on base a couple of times and she stole third to home as Trinity, after her walk, proceeded to go to second," Jones said. "Some other standouts were Alexis had a screaming-hard ground ball down the third-base line, Ilencia did a great job of having a quality at-bat and getting on base.
Taylor Rhea had a nice double down the right-field line that scored at least two runs."
Ogden (0-7) suffered the loss after pitching an inning and two thirds. She surrendered three hits and six runs, although only one was earned. She also had three walks and the team's lone strikeout. Morris pitched the final two and two-thirds innings and yielded nine runs on seven hits with six walks.
The hosts got strong offensive contributions from senior shortstop Megan Burton (2-for-4, with three runs), sophomore third baseman Maddie Swart (3-for-3, with three RBI) and Kaufman, who had a team-best five RBI.
Sophomore Olivia Price got the win to improve to 4-3. She pitched four innings and gave up five hits, four runs and four walks. She had one strikeout. Freshman Alexa Rehmeier threw an inning in relief and allowed one unearned run and a walk, while striking out two.
The two teams meet again tomorrow for a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. ET. The first game can be seen on ESPN+ at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=bb276980-3aa5-4973-8dac-96f3a5093a8b, with the second game available at:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=838979a7-b5a5-49fa-b46f-5ecba9aa2ef5. Live stats are available for both games at:
https://eiupanthers.com/sidearmstats/softball/summary.
