Eastern’s softball team traveled to Starksville, Miss., to participate in the Mississippi State Classic against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Louisiana Tech Techsters and the Samford Bulldogs.

For Saturday’s action, the Panthers battled the host team Mississippi State Bulldogs followed by a game against Louisiana Tech.

Before the tournament began, Eastern head coach Kim Schuette said her team had been working hard on its offensive approach. “We really slowed practice down a bit these past few days and worked on our offensive approach as well as really watching the ball and staying back to attack,” Schuette said.

Unfortunately for Eastern, its hard work at the plate did not pay off in Saturday’s action as the Panthers struggled to get things going at the plate.

Eastern ace Stephanie Maday took the mound against Mississippi State to start the tournament. She gave up two runs in the first inning, which would be all the Bulldogs (13-5) needed in order to win the game.

Maday went 2.1 innings while giving up seven hits and four earned runs in the game. She also picked up the loss. The offense struggled to get anything going against Mississippi State ace Stephanie Becker, who threw a complete game shutout while only allowing three hits.

The Panther bats continued to slumber against the Louisiana Tech Techsters, who defeated the Panthers 2-0 in seven innings.

Sophomore Reynae Hutchinson picked up her first start of the season for Eastern and pitched very well, going six innings while only allowing two runs. Louisiana Tech put a run on the board in both the fourth and sixth innings, which was enough to win the game.

Eastern’s offensive continued to struggle, as they were only able to record two hits in the game. O’Dell and Ashley Anderton were the lone Panthers to reach base.

For Sunday’s action, the Panthers played Louisiana Tech for the second straight day, and followed that up with their third game of the season against Samford.

Both games on Sunday ended with fantastic finishes.

Eastern found itself down 8-3 to begin the bottom of the seventh inning, but with eight hits already in the game, and a new found sense of aggressiveness at the plate, the Panthers were able to make one last run at the victory.

Hutchinson grounded out to start the seventh, but was picked up by Bailey O’Dell who continued her great play with a single. Melise Brown was able to pick up a bunt single, which advanced O’Dell to second base. Sophomore Carly Willert then grounded out to the pitcher to put Eastern one out away from the loss while down by five runs. Morgan Biel put Eastern on the board with a single to right field, which advanced Brown to third and scored O’Dell.

Eastern kept fighting and Brown was able to score on an error by the Techsters’ shortstop that advanced Biel to third base. Pinch hitter Amanda Bilina was then hit by a pitch, which was followed by Ally Seplak’s single to left field that scored Biel, putting the Panthers down by only two runs.

Abby Wood singled with a clutch hit to load up the bases for first baseman Brooke Owens, who would have a chance to either tie or take the lead for the Panthers. Owens ended up grounding out to end the game with a final score of 8-6 in favor of the Techsters.

Eastern was able to break out of their hitting slump by outhitting the Techsters 13-11 in the game. In Eastern’s last tournament game, they took on the Samford Bulldogs for the third time this season in what turned out to be an extra inning affair.

As they entered the seventh inning, Eastern was trailing Samford by a score of 4-2. Wood got things going for the Panthers with a double to center field, which was followed by an Owens single up the middle. Maria Sorrentino pinch ran for Owens and stole second base, which resulted in two runners in scoring position for Eastern.

Melise Brown had the biggest hit of the day when she singled up the middle to score both runners and tie the game. Due to the international tiebreaker rules, Eastern started the eighth inning with a runner (Willert) on second. Willert advanced to third on a passed ball, and was driven in for the game winning run on a fielder’s choice by sophomore Reynae Hutchinson.

Stephanie Maday recorded her fourth win of the season in relief work, going five strong innings while only allowing one run (no earned runs). This was Eastern’s third win against Samford in three games.

Eastern, who is now 5-6 overall, will be in action again next weekend as it takes on Jacksonville State to begin OVC play.

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