It was the bottom of the seventh with two outs with two runners on base.
EIU softball did not lead all day. The score was 6-3 Lindenwood.
Senior infielder Lizzie Stiverson was up to bat. An out meant the Panthers lost the game. She said that she knew she had to do something for her team.
The something became a three-run home run to tie the game.
“I happened to make my adjustment of getting on time, and it just happened,” Stiverson said.
That was only the halfway point in the game. Four and a half hours after the game started, Eastern had another shot to win the game.
In the bottom of the 14th, junior infielder Chloe Wamboldt came to the plate. She knew she just needed a hit as senior outfielder Marybeth Dyson was on second base.
“I just was hungry to find a pitch,” Wamboldt said. “It didn’t have to be a strike, but just to find something and hit it hard.”
She found a pitch and took the ball to right field, letting Dyson run to home plate to put Eastern in the lead for the first time to win the game 12-11 against Lindenwood Friday night at Williams Field.
The game was the first of three in the series, but it felt like two games in one as it went to double the normal number of innings and is tied for the second longest game in EIU history.
EIU started behind after only the second inning. Freshman infielder Karter Skillman doubled down the left field line as she drove in a run. Just an inning later, Lindenwood would extend its lead to two.
Junior catcher Sophia Olman drove in a run after a hard-hit ball that found space between the center and right fielders in the fourth inning. In the fifth and sixth innings, Lindenwood would extend the lead to five.
Eastern would come within three by the end of the sixth, but with only one inning remaining, Eastern needed its bats to come alive. Before the seventh, Lindenwood had nine hits to EIU’s five.
Olman said that the dugout really helped the Panthers come back to life.
“We had a lot of meetings in the dugout between innings that was just like, we’re going to do this right now, we’re going to have the energy right now,” Olman said. “And every time we had one of those little team meetings, it paid off every single time and we came back.”
Co-head coach Kristi Paulson echoed a similar sentiment about the dugout.
“Every time they’re together, I’d say it’s a party in the dugout; they just are excited to be here every second,” Paulson said. “It definitely helps our hitters. It helps our defense. It helps our pitchers just to have that energy pushing behind them.”
Sophomore pitcher Rylan Gick started the game and allowed two runs. She was replaced by senior pitcher Bryanna French in the fourth inning. Gick reentered for extra innings.
For the first four extra innings, she was able to keep Lindenwood scoreless and hitless.
“I just knew that I had to trust my D going into it and then just do it for my team and keep going,” Gick said. “They kept working for me, so I just kept working for them.”
Eastern fell behind in the 10th after Lindenwood scored two runs in the top of the inning.
Olman would be the hero in the bottom of the inning.
“I got beat my last at bat, and she struck me out. So I was just thinking, hands to the ball, meet it. And it was a line shot. I was not expecting it to get out,” Olman said.
The two-run home run tied the game once again.
In the very next inning, Lindenwood senior utility Jolie McMinn hit a three-run home run.
However, EIU rallied again after multiple fielding errors by Lindenwood tied the game.
Senior pitcher Karlie McKenzie came in the fourteenth inning to finish the game, and she got her first win of the year.
After a month of traveling, this was EIU’s first game at home. Co-head coach Dan Paulson said that being home with their own music and fans was a win for them.
EIU finishes the series against Lindenwood in a doubleheader Saturday. Olman said that after playing them for 14 innings, it just must be a mental reset before tomorrow.
“Going into tomorrow with a little bit of extra confidence because we do have the advantage in the series right now,” Wamboldt said. “So kind of just knowing that and being comfortable throughout the beginning of the game instead of kicking it up towards the end.”
The first game against Lindenwood starts at 2 p.m. and the second game is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
