The Eastern softball team will travel to Birmingham, Ala., this weekend to take on Samford and Mercer at the Samford Tournament. 

 This tournament will be a round robin, with Eastern, Samford and Mercer each taking on each other twice.

Eastern head coach Kim Schuette is looking at this tournament as an opportunity to improve.

“We want to play better than we did last weekend as a team,” Schuette said. “Each individual has personal goals for this weekend. If we can accomplish some of those, we will in turn make the team better.”

Eastern’s first game of the tournament is against the Samford Bulldogs at 11 a.m. on Saturday. 

Schuette said the sophomore pitcher Stephanie Maday will likely take the mound for this game. Later that day at 3:30 p.m., Eastern will take on the Mercer Bears for the first time.

For Sunday’s action, the Panthers are set to take on Mercer at 12 p.m., followed by their second game of the day against Samford at 2:15 p.m.

 The Samford Bulldogs have begun the 2012 season with a record of three wins and five losses. Rachel Bickert, who has a .455 batting average and a team leading five RBIs, leads the Bulldogs at the plate.

Eastern can expect to see Misha Aldridge on the mound for Samford. Aldridge has one win and four losses this season, to go along with a sparkling 2.12 ERA. She has pitched 33 innings and struck out 14 batters so far this season.

The Mercer Bears have started the 2012 season with two wins and seven losses. McKenzie Woody leads them at the plate with a .419 batting average, seven runs scored and a couple RBIs.

Jessica Holsinger leads Mercer on the mound. She had a record of one win and one loss to go along with a 3.20 ERA.

Schuette has had her team working on the fundamentals of the game this past week and hopes to see it pay off.

“We’ve really been focusing on seeing the ball,” Shuette said. “Watching the ball actually hit the bat is what we need to do better. You have to watch the ball all the way in instead of watching it half way and swinging when and where you think it will be. We have worked to gain more confidence with our short game as well so we will see what happens.”

She also reiterated the importance of improvement in a long season.

“This season is a long one with many short tests,” Schuette said. “With every test we need to get better so we can continue to improve and accomplish the big goals we have set.”

 Erik Jensen can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].