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Game-1 Box Score
Game-2 Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. – After taking the lead twice in extra innings but not being able to hold on for the win, the Eastern Kentucky University softball team held off a late Eastern Illinois University comeback attempt in game two to earn a split in the Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader.  EIU earned a 5-4, 10-inning win in game one.  EKU took a 4-3 victory in the second game.

Eastern Kentucky sophomore Nicole Heitz went a combined 7-for-10 with four RBIs in the doubleheader.

In game two, the Colonels scored all the runs they would need in the fourth inning.  With two outs and the bases loaded, Diane Gallagher’s single drove home the first run of the game.  The next batter, Heitz, cleared the bases with a triple.

EKU (21-25, 12-10 OVC) would need all four runs, as Eastern Illinois mounted a final inning comeback attempt.  With one out and two on in the seventh Bailey O’Dell’s double to center got the home team on the board.  Melise Brown’s single platted two more to cut the deficit to a single run.  With the tying run on second and the winning run on first, Shaylon Robb struck out the final two batters to preserve the win.

Heitz finished 4-for-4 with three RBIs in game two.  Gallagher went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.  Hannah Driver (2-0) started and pitched six and one-third innings.  She allowed three runs on nine hits, walked two and struck out two. 

Brown was 2-for-4 with two RBIs for EIU (24-19, 14-7 OVC).

In game one, EKU took a 1-0 lead on a single by Heitz in the top of the fourth inning.  Katie Tackett’s solo home run to lead off the fifth pushed the lead to 2-0.  It was Tackett’s ninth homer of the season.

EIU cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the fifth and tied the game in the sixth.  Morgan Biel’s two-out single got the Panthers on the board.  Hailee Hanna’s two-out single an inning later tied the score 2-2.

The game remained tied until the top of the eighth.  Eastern Kentucky took one run leads in the top of the eighth, when Gallagher scored on an error by the EIU pitcher, and in the top of the 10th on an RBI single by Raquel Howes.  However, the Colonels couldn’t hold the lead in either inning.

In the bottom of the 10th, the Panthers won the game on a two-run home run over the left-center field fence by Reynae Hutchinson.

Heitz and Howes each went 3-for-6 for Eastern Kentucky.  Brown was 2-for-4 with three runs scored for Eastern Illinois.  Stephanie Maday (14-9) pitched all 10 innings for the win.  She allowed two earned runs, walked four and struck out 11 batters.

The Colonels and Panthers will conclude their three-game set with a single game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.