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MARTIN, Tenn. – Eastern Kentucky University, which earned a spot in each of the first 15 Ohio Valley Conference softball tournaments, will return to the event this week after a three-year absence.  The fifth seeded Colonels will play No. 4 seed Murray State on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The winner of Thursday’s first round game will face No. 1 seed and host Tennessee-Martin at 6:30 p.m. ET.  The loser of the EKU/Murray State contest will fall into the elimination bracket and play the loser of the Jacksonville State/Tennessee Tech first round game at 11 a.m. ET on Friday.

Eastern Kentucky is 27-28 overall and went 16-13 in OVC games.  The Colonels capped the regular season by winning 11 of their final 17 games.  Murray State is 32-19 in 2012 and posted a 19-11 record in league games.

The Colonels and Racers faced each other in a three-game series in Richmond at the end of the regular season.  Eastern won the first game 3-0.  Murray State took the second game of the doubleheader, 10-7, in nine innings.  MSU won the series with a 3-0 victory in the finale.

EKU did not qualify for the past three OVC tournaments and will be making its first appearance since 2008.  Eastern won the tournament title in 2002 and 2004 and carries an all-time tournament record of 32-28 into this year’s event.

This year marks the third time in 16 tournament appearances that Eastern Kentucky has received the fifth seed.  In 1994 Eastern beat UT Martin and Tennessee Tech before falling to Southeast Missouri and Middle Tennessee.  In 2000, the Colonels lost to Tennessee Tech, beat Eastern Illinois and then lost again to TTU.

In conference play this season, the Colonels swept Morehead State and Tennessee State.  EKU won series against Southeast Missouri, Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville.  Eastern Kentucky lost series against Jacksonville State, Austin Peay, UT Martin and Murray State.  Tennessee Tech is the only team EKU did not beat at least once this season.  One game in the series was cancelled due to weather, the Golden Eagles won the other two games.

As a team, Eastern Kentucky leads the conference in hits (444), and ranks second in batting average (.283) and home runs (40).  EKU has the fifth best team ERA (3.37) in the OVC and has the second lowest walks per seven innings (2.41).  Individually, Diane Gallagher (.382) and Raquel Howes (.381) have the fourth and fifth highest batting averages.  Howes leads the league in hits (72), RBIs (54) and total bases (134).  Pitcher Leanna Pittsenbarger is tied for the lead with 41 appearances and is tied for fifth with 15 wins.

Redshirt freshman Shannon McQueen enters the OVC tournament with a seven-game hitting streak.  McQueen’s is the longest current streak by a Colonel and the fourth longest current streak by an OVC player.  Howes’ 10-game hitting streak earlier in the season is the longest by a Colonel in 2012.