The Eastern softball team had its final look at its team over the weekend before it heads into the conference portion of the schedule Saturday at Williams Field. The Panthers came away with a pair of wins but dropped both games to Mercer.

Eastern opened the tournament with a with a 4-2 comeback win over Eastern Michigan. The Eagles scored twice in the third inning but the Panthers answered in the bottom of the fourth taking advantage of a pair of errors by the Eagles.

Senior Amber Toenyes started the comeback with a single scoring freshman Mia Davis. The run was unearned.

Junior Andrea Roberts tied it up with a single to the left side to score sophomore Amber Matchett, who pinch ran for Toenyes.

Eastern came away with two more runs in the fifth inning off a 2-RBI single by sophomore Maria DeVito.

Junior Michelle Rogers picked up her eighth win of the season, surpassing her win total from last season, to improve to 8-4 on the year. Junior Jessica Wireman got her second save of the year as well.

Eastern went down early against Savannah State but took care of the 1-0 first-inning deficit and came away with a 6-1 win.

Sophomore Mady Poulter dominated the Savannah State pitching and drove in four runs while hitting her second career home run. She hit a 3-run home run to left field in the fifth to give the Panthers some added insurance runs.

Wireman picked up the win with freshman McKenna Coffman closing out the final two innings. She made her Eastern debut March 11 where she recorded two outs including a strikeout.

This time around she gave up no runs and had one strikeout.

Mercer was the host of the tournament and the Panthers could not make it past the Bears. Eastern lost 3-1 and 7-4 in its two games with the tournament hosts.

In the final game of the tournament, Eastern got a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Bears tied it and kept pulling away from the Panthers. Eastern had it within one run in the sixth inning, but Mercer tacked on two to finish off a 7-4 win.

The Panthers finished the pre season with a 14-14 record overall against non-conference opponents and will start their Ohio Valley Conference play Saturday against Belmont at Williams Field.

The Panthers will play a doubleheader against the Bruins Saturday before turning around and playing Tennessee State Sunday in a doubleheader at home as well.

Belmont has had a strong start to the spring posting a 22-6 record overall. The Bruins were also at the Mercer Bear Invitational with the Panthers and ended their weekend with a four-hour 10-inning 13-12 win over the Bears.

They will play Memphis Tuesday before coming to Charleston.

Tennessee State on the other hand has struggled and went 7-15 through the first part of its non-conference schedule. The Tigers will play Middle Tennessee Wednesday and Southern Illinois Edwardsville Saturday before playing the Panthers Sunday.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]