Eastern beats Butler 3-0 on road

JJ Bullock, Sports Editor

Eastern freshman McKenna Coffman put together what was arguably her best start of the season on Wednesday in a 3-0 win over Butler in Indianapolis.

Eastern's McKenna Coffman tosses a pitch in the Panthers' 13-0 loss to Southern Illinois Edwardsville on April 9. Coffman threw six scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over Butler on Wednesday.
JJ Bullock
Eastern’s McKenna Coffman tosses a pitch in the Panthers’ 13-0 loss to Southern Illinois Edwardsville on April 9. Coffman threw six scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over Butler on Wednesday.

Coffman threw six innings, gave up just two hits and walked just one batter on route to picking up her fourth win of the season.

Coffman threw the game’s first six innings and freshman Hannah Cravens picked up the save throwing a scoreless seventh inning in which she allowed no base runners.

The duo of Coffman and Cravens were helped more so by Butler starting pitcher Alyssa Graves than they were Eastern’s own bats.

Graves allowed Eastern’ Megan Burton and Mia Davis to score in the first inning both via a wild pitch.

Haley Mitchell drove in a run for Eastern with an RBI single in the third inning, but other than that, had it not been for the wild pitches, Graves and Coffman could have been locked in quite the pitcher’s duel.

Graves gave up the two early runs thanks to the wild pitchers but settled in after that and finished her four innings pitched striking out eight Panther batters.

Graves even struck out Coffman once in the game, but ultimately it would be Coffman would have the last laugh.

Coffman has been no stranger to successful outings on the mound as of late.

She threw six innings and gave up just one run in her last start against Morehead State on Saturday, prior to that she had a 4.2, two runs-allowed, outing against Indiana State on April 3.

Coffman’s ERA is now a team-best 2.55 this season.

Cravens has settled down after giving up 11 runs in her first three mound appearances of the season, giving up just one run in her last three appearances.

The win was Eastern’s 13th of the season and third in its last five games.

Eastern has only won three of five games one other time this season when they did it March 9, 10 and 12.

Eastern had also not shutout an opponent since it did so in a 12-0 win over Quinnipiac on March 12.

Eastern has just one non-conference game remaining on its schedule, a April 23 showdown with IUPUI at Williams Field.

The Panthers’ next games are Friday in a doubleheader affair against Southeast Missouri.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]