Pitching gave Eastern the upper hand once again as starter Jessica Wireman tossed four scoreless innings and struck out six batters and Michelle Rogers pitched two scoreless relief innings, en route to the Panthers 2-0 road win over the Butler Bulldogs Tuesday afternoon.

The tandem of Wireman and Rogers surrendered just one hit a piece, both coming from Butler right fielder Jenna Foreman, and held the Bulldog bats at bay allowing just five baserunners in another strong pitching performance.

“Today my rise, drop and change up were working the best and were the most effective,” Wireman said. “I feel like I pitched pretty good today. I would not say it was my best game, but it definitely would not say it was my worst.”

The Eastern offense was kept relatively quiet in its own right by Butler starter Gabbi Schnaiter. Schraitner kept the game scoreless until the fifth inning when Eastern’s Tori Johnson singled up the middle driving in pinch runner Amber Matchett, making the score 1-0 Panthers.

“It felt great. I was just happy that we finally scored and got something going,” Johnson said of her RBI hit.

The score remained 1-0 until the top of the seventh inning when it was Johnson again who drove in a run, singling to center, driving in Katie Grunnert. Johnson finished 3-3 with 2 RBIs.

“I was honestly just seeing the ball well today,” Johnson said. “My approach today was to just be more aggressive than I previously have been in the past games. I was really just looking for a pitch on the plate that I knew I could drive.

Eastern danced out of trouble in the bottom of the sixth inning. After Foreman singled off Rogers to begin the inning, she stole second base and then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Sarah Dixon.

With a runner on third and just one out, Rogers struck out the next two Bulldog batters, and got herself out of the inning with minimal damage done.

For the Panthers, the win moves them to 23-16 overall, 15-14 in non-conference play and 9-1 in their last 10 games.

Eastern returns home Friday for a double-header against Tennessee- Martin with game one starting at 1 p.m.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].