The Lady Panther softball team dropped a pair of games to IUPUI Wednesday night at Williams Field. In the first game Eastern lost a hard fought game that lasted ten innings by a final score of 3-2. In the second game of the doubleheader the Panthers fell to IUPUI 1-0. IUPUI beat Eastern two-of-three games in its series.

After being swept in the doubleheader by IUPUI the Panthers record is now 24-22 for the season with a 14-8 mark in the OVC.

One area that the Panthers excelled in was it’s pitching, which allowed only one earned run in 24 innings against the Jaguars. Sophomore ace Stephanie Maday was on top of her game in her two starts against IUPUI, pitching 17 innings and only allowing three runs (no earned) on nine hits and four walks. She also struck out 16 batters.

Sophomore Hanna Mennenga pitched one of her best games of the season in the 1-0 loss to IUPUI on Wednesday. Mennenga pitched seven innings, allowing only one run on five hits and a walk. She also struck out five Jaguar hitters.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, their hitting was not nearly as good as their pitching. Freshman shortstop Bailey O’Dell led Eastern at the plate against IUPUI. In three games, she was four-for-eight with two runs scored. Sophomores Morgan Biel and Carly Willert were both two-for-seven in the series. Willert came through with two big doubles and an RBI while Biel scored a run. Junior Ally Seplak was two-for-eight with a run scored. 

Eastern will take on conference leader Tennessee-Martin in its most important series of the season this weekend in Martin, Tenn.  Tennessee-Martin leads the OVC title race with a 20-3 conference record and a 33-16 overall record. To have any chance at the conference title Eastern would have to take two-of-three games or sweep the Skyhawks in the weekend series. 

The Panthers will likely start Maday in Saturday’s first game and in the Sunday finale while Mennenga will presumably receive the game two start. Maday has been great this season and will come into Saturday’s game with a 14-11 record and a 1.81 ERA in 185.2 innings pitched. She has also recorded 179 strikeouts. Mennenga has been a consistent performer for the Panthers and will enter the series with a 10-8 record and a 3.05 ERA with 85 strikeouts. 

Tennessee-Martin will throw Chelsea Jones on the mound for the first series game. Jones has a 22-7 record with a 2.42 ERA in 199.1 innings this season. The Jaguars will then likely go with Casey Vincent in the second game this weekend. Vincent has a 9-3 record and a 2.60 ERA in 78 innings this season.

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