If Eastern softball head coach Lloydene Searle could leave senior pitcher Kristen Becker in for every game she would.

The Panthers’ ace was practically untouchable as she started all three games against Tennessee State working 16 innings in two days.

Becker’s efforts helped lead Eastern to two wins its three-game weekend series against Tennessee State.

She pitched a complete seven innings in the first game earning a 4-1 victory. Searle liked what she saw and gave Becker (7-11) the nod for the second game Saturday. She was only left in for two innings because Searle did not want to over-work her ace pitcher before Sunday’s game.

“That was really hard for me to take her out,” Searle said. “We had the game (Sunday) and I didn’t want to wear her down.”

Tennessee State got on the board first in game one after Angela Huebner sent a Becker pitch over the right center field fence in the second inning. It would prove to be the only earned run Becker would give up all weekend.

The Panthers put unearned runs in both the third and fourth innings to take a 2-1 lead. The Panthers added two more runs in the seventh to take a 4-1 win.

Alana Thomas took the loss for the Tigers going the distance, allowing just three hits.

The second game featured another pitching duel with a combined five hits between the two teams.

Two runs in the fourth inning off freshman Ashley Condon would be all the Tigers would need to get a 2-1 victory.

Searle said she thought Condon would get out of the inning, but allowing walks proved to be her downfall. With the bases loaded, Condon walked in Sabrina Smiley, which proved to be the winning run.

Eastern got its only run in the sixth after Melissa Boente, who was pinch running for Mandy Lindwall, scored on a wild pitch by Tigers’ starting pitcher Tarah Evanisko.

Evanisko (2-7) took the win, giving up two hits in five innings while striking out four.

In Sunday’s series finale, Becker arguably had her best performance of the weekend as the Panthers took the win 3-1.

Becker not only pitched her second complete game of the weekend, but she also got the job done with her bat. She got one of the three Panther hits and also drove in a run with a fourth inning double.

Kari Hagerty had the other RBI for the Panthers who improved to 3-7 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“It’s nice to get three,” Searle said. “More importantly, we haven’t played the number of games that other teams have played. Other teams still have more losses than we do.”

Besides Becker’s pitching, errors could have been the deciding factors in Eastern’s two wins. The Tigers had five errors in the first game and had one in the third game for three unearned runs.

Searle questioned some of the calls on the errors, but said the team’s ability to put the ball in play was the key.

“When you put the ball in play, you can force errors,” Searle said. “It just wasn’t a high hitting game, but we did drive the ball more than the hits show.

“That’s something the coaches wanted to see.”