CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Eastern Kentucky picked up three victories on Saturday and Sunday at the 2008 Chattanooga Challenge. After dropping their first game of the event on Friday, the Colonels won the final four games they played and allowed only two runs in the last 26 innings. Eastern (6-3, 0-0 OVC) beat Ball State, 3-0, and Saint Francis, 3-0, on Saturday, and concluded the event with a 4-1 win over East Tennessee State on Sunday.

Against Ball State, sophomore Shyenne Hussey had a hand in all three Colonel runs. In the first, she staked Eastern to a 1-0 lead when she singled to right field to score Adriel Foxley. In the fourth, Hussey led off the inning with a solo home run, her second of the season. In the sixth, she drove in Foxley again.

Ball State recorded just two hits off EKU pitching and didn’t get its first hit until the fifth inning. The Cardinals attempted a rally in the seventh. Alyssa Collins singled to lead off the inning but Stacye Toups struck out the next batter and then induced a game-ending double play.

Hussey finished 3-for-3 to go along with her three RBIs. Jenn Bledsoe earned the win after pitching three innings of no-hit ball. She walked two and struck out five.

The Colonels completed play Saturday by posting another 3-0 shutout, this time against Saint Francis.

On Sunday, Amber Lenz gave EKU a 1-0 first inning lead with an RBI double to center field. The Colonels extended the lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the fourth. Hussey drove in Lenz with a double to left center and scored later on an ETSU error.

Chanze Patterson, Lenz and Foxley each finished with two hits. Chelsea Butler started and pitched three and two-thirds innings. She allowed one run on three hits and struck out three. Toups tossed the final three and a third innings allowing three hits and striking out three batters.

The Colonels will host the 2008 EKU Invitational beginning on Saturday. Eastern will play Cleveland State at 1 p.m., and Appalachian State at 3 p.m., at Gertrude Hood Field on the EKU campus.