As she so often does, Hannah Cravens, through seven and a third innings, trekked from the batter’s box to the pitcher’s mound and back again, repeating a familiar route that had her pitching and batting in the same inning.

“It’s definitely a lot of work, but it makes it less work when I have good defense behind me whatever I’m doing,” Cravens said.

Cravens kept nine Tennessee-Martin batters contained for five innings of play, undone by a six-run seventh inning for the Skyhawks.

The 6-3 Eastern loss, which followed a 3-2 defeat in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader, extended the Panthers to nine successive losses, the second such losing streak this season.

“We did some good things on the field,” said assistant coach Al Schuette. “We just didn’t put the ball in play as well as we wanted to for base hits until the seventh inning.”

At the plate for the first at-bat of the seventh inning, freshman Kallie Pickens singled to leftfield.

Cravens intentionally walked sophomore Paige Clark, whose four hits in the first game solidified a season high, and hit freshman Kenna Garst on a wild pitch to load the bases, which impelled head coach Kim Schuette to make an adjustment.

Montgomery, who pitched a complete game and threw to all 21 in game one, was tapped by Schuette to provide relief, throwing to four Tennessee-Martin players before being replaced by McKenna Coffman.

Juniors Montgomery and McKenna Coffman surrendered six runs between them, forming a surplus in runs that, by the time the bottom of the seventh came around, proved to be an impregnable lead for the Skyhawks, even as Eastern tacked on two more with junior Mia Davis’ homerun in the bottom of the inning.

Three of the four batters that Montgomery encountered went hitless against her in the previous game, but, nevertheless, senior Gracyn McBride singled to award the Skyhawks their first lead on the afternoon, and junior Haylee Short’s double to center field enlarged the Panthers’ deficit to four with UT Martin up 5-1.

“I think it’s a matter of matchups,” Schuette said. “There was hitters coming up in the lineup that (Montgomery) had handled pretty well in the first game, and we felt really good about her coming in in the second game.”

“You’ve still got life,” a spectator yelled as Mitchell walked up to the batter’s box.

After Davis’ two run home run brought the score to 6-3, and with two outs by way of a lineout and a strikeout, Mitchell struck out looking, securing a win for a Tennessee-Martin team that lost four of its last six.

In game one, Cravens devoured every stitching of the ball in the bottom of the second, clobbering one for a double, as Mady Poulter, who Erin Gallagher walked earlier that inning, reached third on the play.

On the very next at-bat, Poulter slid home on sophomore Megan Burton’s sacrifice fly to center field, facilitating a 2-1 Eastern lead that survived until the Skyhawks evened the score at two in the top of the fifth.

Tom O’Connor can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]