MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State softball team begins a six-game road trip against the teams in the bottom tier of the Ohio Valley Conference standings looking to pick up key wins in the race for a postseason berth to the league tournament.
The Eagles, which have dropped six straight contests away from home, will get their first chance to snap that streak with a three-game series against new OVC member Western Illinois. MSU and the Leathernecks will tangle Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET, and then twice on Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. ET. All three games will take place at the Mary Ellen McKee Stadium in Macomb, Ill.
It will be the team's farthest OVC road trip and second longest travel distance this season.
This weekend's series has shifted to a Friday-Saturday matchup due to the Easter holiday. It is the Eagles' lone OVC three-game set with that format. Virtually every other conference outing features a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.
Like MSU, Western Illinois (12-19/2-7) is looking to snap a downward slide. The Leathernecks have dropped four straight and are just 1-2 at home.
In two of its three OVC series this year, Morehead State (8-14/2-7) won game one only to fall in games two and three. It also has just one win in its last nine outings.
Coach
Megan Griffith looks to reverse those trends.
"We're ready for WIU this weekend. We've been working hard to clean up the defense and cut down on walks from the pitchers. Hitters have been hitting well working both sides of the plate," she said. "We've prepared for their pitchers all week. We've changed our between-game process to help us carry the momentum over to game two. We're ready to get back out there this weekend and make it happen."
Despite the recent struggles, MSU has made marked strides in coach Griffith's second year. With a 4-4 record, the Eagles already have won more home games than last season's 3-10 mark, and at 4-10 has more total victories away from home than 2022's 2-28 tally.
This past Saturday, Morehead State captured the opening contest of the series with Tennessee Tech 4-2 to mark the first time in the program's 35-year history that it won four straight games against the Golden Eagles. However, MSU was unable to carry that success over, falling to TTU 7-2 (Saturday) and 9-4 (Sunday) in its most recent outings.
However, the Eagles' offense was clicking against TTU. In the series, the Eagles collected 25 hits and raised their batting average 14 points. Their nine hits in games two and three tied for the second most this season.
The squad also has improved its fielding percentage by 10 points from two seasons ago, when it finished with a mark of .941.
Morehead State has been plagued by players missing games, most of which were due to injury. Three scholarship players who were expected to make an impact this spring are not on the active roster. In addition, six Eagles have been out a total of 44 games, an average of two players per contest.
Junior outfielder
Darlene Montoya has led the team's offense all season. She tops the squad in batting average (.339), hits (21), doubles (seven), RBI (12) and slugging percentage (.500). Junior infielder
Samantha Cervantes has picked up her batting of late and is hitting .375 over her last 12 games. Freshman infielder
Kendra Lewis is third on the team with a .268 batting average, improving it 13 points over the weekend. Adding in her 12 walks and Lewis' on base percentage now sits at .397. Junior utility player
Ilencia Lightbody continues to lead the Eagles in free passes with 14 and in on base percentage at .418.
Fifth-year outfielder
Trinity Spear moved into fifth place on the MSU career list for triples on Sunday. This season, she paces the club in triples (two) and homers (three), and is tied for second in stolen bases (four). Freshman infielder
Sela Pickford leads the team in the latter category with five.
The team has spread out its base stealing this spring. All seven Eagles who have played at least 19 games have two stolen bases. Nine total players have swiped at least two, with no one taking more than five.
The team's pitchers continue to post mixed results. Freshman
Addie Stem has been the anchor of the staff, having thrown 70.2 innings. She also owns a 4-9 record, a 3.67 ERA, with two saves, 44 strikeouts and 42 walks. Sophomore
Jessie Begley posts a 4-4 record, a 5.93 ERA, with one save, 22 strikeouts and 25 walks in 56.2 innings. Freshman
Cassiti Baroni is 0-1, with a 4.97 ERA, and has five strikeouts and 14 walks in 12.2 innings.
The Eagles enter the weekend with averages of .228 batting, a 4.70 ERA, 3.46 runs per game, a .951 fielding percentage, plus 27 steals and 10 home runs.
Western Illinois has dropped its last four, six of seven and nine of 12. Most recently, the Leathernecks fell to league leader Eastern Illinois 3-2, 6-1 and 6-1 this past weekend. In the team's only home games this spring, it lost to Tennessee Tech 12-11 and 9-4, before winning the third game 11-6.
Its team numbers include a .258 batting average, 3.48 rpg, a 3.52 ERA, a .957 fielding percentage, with 44 stolen bases and eight home runs.
Sophomore outfielder Rylee Boone tops the club with a .397 batting average and a .426 on base percentage. She has eight steals, but only one RBI. Senior infielder Bella Alvarez is hitting .307, with five doubles, three homers, 22 RBI and a .466 slugging percentage. Senior infielder Gabriela Drager also is batting .307. Freshman outfielder Malia Robertson leads the squad with 11 stolen bases and 18 runs, while hitting .290.
The pitching staff features senior Emily Price, who owns a 5-9 record, a 2.84 ERA, 69 strikeouts and 19 walks in 79.0 innings. Junior Raven Morrison is 4-3, with a 3.21 ERA, 36 strikeouts and 36 walks in 56.2 innings. Freshman Lillie Wools is 3-7, with a 4.34 ERA, 41 strikeouts and 26 walks in 59.2 innings.
Tennessee Tech is the lone common opponent and both teams went 1-2 against the Golden Eagles.
Western Illinois and MSU have a very limited history. The Leathernecks and Eagles have only met twice, a doubleheader on March 26, 2014, in Macomb.
WIU won the first game 10-3, with the second game ending in a 3-3 tie, being called after six innings due to darkness.
In game one, MSU scored twice in the first. Western Illinois answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The hosts hit a grand slam in the fourth to pull away for good, eventually adding two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth. The Leathernecks compiled 11 hits to MSU's three. The Eagles also had both of the game's errors.
In the nightcap, MSU again scored early, collecting two first-inning runs. WIU scored once in the bottom of the frame, and then added a run in both the fourth and fifth. The Eagles had a solo homer in the sixth to tie the score. Both teams finished with seven hits and two errors.
All three of this weekend's contests can be viewed on ESPN+. Game one will be at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/f6c4b80e-0a5f-4907-b22f-55fc17205afc?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults. Game two will be at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/8c978c9d-5d1d-4031-a6e2-15492d2ba02d?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults. Game three will be at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/b2a20c9e-e88f-45a2-b8f9-4794a098fcad?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults.
Fans can also follow the live stats for all three games at the link:
https://goleathernecks.com/sidearmstats/softball/media;category=batting.
The Eagles will turn around and head out to the next most western OVC opponent when they face Lindenwood in a three-game series in St. Charles, Mo. The Eagles and Lions will play on Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. ET, and then on Sunday, April 7 at 1 p.m. ET.
The Blue and Gold will return home to host archrival Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday, April 10, in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
