Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ATLANTA – EKU softball (5-2) ends day one of the Bob Heck Classic, hosted by Georgia State, with a 1-1 record after defeating Rhode Island by a score of 5-3 and dropping the second game to host school GSU in five innings 11-1.
 
Junior Jeanay Riley gave EKU the go-ahead 2-run homerun in the seventh inning over Rhode Island to break a 3-3 tie. Her homer would give the Colonels the win to open the BHC.
 
Senior Lou Bowers led EKU with three hits on the day. Reigning ASUN Player of the Week Vianna Barron followed with two hits over the two games to extend her team-lead in hits this year to 11.
 
Freshman Emma Bethel earned the starting nod in both games on Friday, the Loudon, Tenn. product threw five innings. Sophomore Lauren Narvaez shut the door in the first game in relief, tossing four innings with three strikeouts for the win, her third of the season.
 
Game Six: EKU 5, Rhode Island 3
Bethel earned the start for EKU to open the Bob Heck Classic, going one inning with a strikeout and two earned runs. Rhode Island got on the board first with a sac fly that scored Rachel Zingerman. The Colonels responded in the top of the second as freshman Lilly Davis knocked in Barron on a grounder to third.
 
Zingerman once again broke the standoff in the bottom of the inning with a two-out triple to give Rhody a 3-1 lead over EKU.
 
Both teams failed to score any runs in the following two innings until Bowers hit in Madison Scott to bring the Colonels within one. Maggie Pertee would equalize the contest at three minutes later off a wild pitch.
 
EKU found its answer in the last frame when Riley hit a 2-run homerun, her first of the 2023 campaign, over the right field fence for a 5-3 Colonel lead. 
 
Narvaez, who entered the game in the second inning, shut the door on URI in the bottom of the seventh to advance EKU to 5-1 on the season. Narvaez, earning the win, boasts an unblemished 3-0 record to start the year.
 
Game Seven: Georgia State 11, EKU 1 (5 innings)
EKU head coach Jane Worthington submitted the same lineup in game two on Friday against the Panthers, starting Bethel from the circle. In the top of the first, EKU struck first off Barron bringing in Jeanay Riley off a grounder to the right side.
 
Georgia State answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Panthers continued their offensive performance in the bottom of the second as Bailee Richardson sent a 3-run home run over the fence, a double ended the frame with GSU ahead 9-1.
 
Another home run for Georgia State in the bottom of the third advanced the host school to lead 11-1. Two innings later, time was called in the fifth inning ending day one of the Bob Heck Classic.
 
Bethel threw all four innings with 12 hits, 11 earned runs, and two strikeouts.
 
EKU returns to action tomorrow morning with games against Purdue Fort Wayne (10:00 a.m.) and Georgia State (3:00 p.m.) in day two of the BHC.