Softball to Meet EIU in Battle For OVC Lead

Friday, March 29

Charleston, Ill.

4 p.m.

Murray State

Eastern Illinois

3/28/2013 3:15:00 PM | Softball

Game Notes

MSU 2013 Record: 12-15 (5-1 OVC)

This Weekend's Opponents:
Eastern Illinois: 16-9 (6-1 OVC) | Live Stats | Live Audio
All-Time vs. EIU: 3-7

This weekend, the Murray State softball team will travel to Eastern Illinois for a three-game showdown between the current top two teams in the OVC. A series win or sweep against the Panthers would propel the Racers to the top of the conference standings.

On Wednesday, he Racers saw their four-game win-streak come to an end with a 3-0 loss in game one of a doubleheader at Evansville. However, MSU bounced back in game two with a 6-3 win to earn the split.

Errors proved to be the difference in the game one, as all three of the runs for Evansville (8-16) were unearned and came as a direct result of the errors. The Racers committed a season-high five miscues in the game, compared to just two by the Purple Aces

Leslie Bridges led Murray State in game one by coming up with both hits for her team, a single in the second and a double in the fifth. Despite the loss, Shelby Kosmecki (5-10) had a positive outing for the Racers and allowed no earned runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and three walks.

In game, two the Purple Aces once again jumped out to an early lead when Kayla Kautz singled in the bottom of the first and drove in Mariah Ferguson and Victoria Dellorto. In the top of the fourth, Bridges continued her big day at the plate with a two-run home run to left field to tie the game at three.

In the fifth, Alexa Becker gave the Racers the win when she went yard for the seventh time this season and the 14th time in her career. The long ball capped the scoring at 6-3, as it also scored Cox and Shelbey Miller, who reached on a double and an error, respectively.

Becker finished the game at 2-for-4 with a run, 3 RBIs, a double and a home run, while Cox went 2-for-3 with two runs. CheyAnne Gaskey (7-5) went the full seven for MSU in the win and allowed three runs on three hits with six strikeout and two walks.

Prior to this weekend, Murray State and Eastern Illinois had met 10 times previous, with the Panthers holding a 7-3 advantage. The Racers have never beaten the Panthers in Murray, but are 3-3 in Charleston. Eastern Illinois won the first two games of last year's series in Charleston, but MSU prevented the sweep by winning the final game, 3-0.

Last weekend, the Panthers saw an eight-game win-streak come to an end when the dropped the first game of a doubleheader at Eastern Kentucky, 5-3. However, EIU was able to bounce back from its first OVC loss of the season with a 3-2 win in the final game of the series.

Ashleigh Westover led the Panthers in the series by going 4-for-6 with two runs, while Carly Willert went 4-for-7 with two runs, a double, a home run and three RBIs. Stephanie Maday picked up the win for EIU in the series and allowed two runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts over 9.0 innings.

Hannah Cole is currently one of two Panthers batting over .300 with a team-high .365 average, while Willert follows behind at .317. Cole also has team-highs in slugging percentage and on-base percentage at .595 and .461, respectively. Hanna Mennenga currently leads the EIU pitching staff at 9-4 on the year with a team-low ERA of 1.47 and a team-high 142 strikeouts.

Live stats and free live audio, courtesy of EIU, will be available for all three games this weekend. Links for all coverage of the series can be found at the top of this page and at GoRacers.com. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 4 p.m., while Saturday's doubleheader is slated to begin at 12 p.m.