EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Softball returns home to USI Softball Field this weekend for its final regular-season home series and Senior Weekend when the Screaming Eagles host Eastern Illinois University on Saturday and Sunday.
The series starts with a Saturday Noon doubleheader and concludes Sunday at Noon for Senior Day. Senior Day ceremonies will follow Sunday's ballgame, as the Screaming Eagles will recognize their graduating class of
Caroline Stapleton,
Maddison Depencier,
Olivia Money, and
Julianna Hibbs.
USI Softball (13-25, 10-11 OVC) hopes that a return to the friendly confines of USI Softball Field this weekend after a two-week OVC road swing will help the Eagles snap a three-game skid. Meanwhile, Eastern Illinois (27-20, 17-3 OVC) comes to town on a six-game winning streak.
Eastern Illinois leads the all-time series, 16-2. Last season, the Panthers won all three games in Charleston, Illinois, and once in the OVC Tournament in Peoria, Illinois.
Entering this weekend's series and with six regular-season games to go, USI sits seventh in the OVC standings. The Screaming Eagles could potentially clinch their OVC Tournament ticket by the end of the weekend. USI is still in the hunt for a top-four spot that gives a bye into the double-elimination rounds of the tournament. Eastern Illinois heads into the weekend with a two-game first-place lead in the conference standings.
USI is coming off a two-week OVC road swing in which the Eagles went 2-4. However, USI fell in all three games last weekend at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Stapleton led USI's offense in the series against the Cougars with a .600 batting average. The Screaming Eagles had four players hit for .400 or better in the series. Junior catcher
Alyssa Mumaw led the Eagles with three RBIs. Collectively, USI hit .290 against the Cougars.
Over the two-week OVC road swing, USI's slap-hitting duo of Stapleton and freshman outfielder
Katelyn Marx led the way. Marx hit a team-best .474 with four runs scored in the six road games. Stapleton was not too far behind with a .429 batting average, three runs, and two RBIs in the last two series. Sophomore first baseman
Lilly Brown also hit the ball well during the road swing, hitting .385. Mumaw was the leading run producer, collecting six RBIs while batting .353.
Overall, Stapleton is tied for the team lead in batting average alongside Marx, both of whom are batting .353. Stapleton tops the squad with 30 runs, while Marx is second with 27 runs. Junior infielder
Sydney Long has a team-best 18 RBIs while batting near .290. USI has seven players with 10 or more RBIs. Freshman pitcher
Anna Kemp is still leading the pitching staff with a 3.81 ERA and 49 strikeouts, while sophomore
Kylie Witthaus has thrown a team-high 93.1 innings with 48 strikeouts and a 4.95 ERA.
Eastern Illinois is coming off a 6-3 midweek victory over the University of Illinois Chicago on Wednesday, which pushed the Panthers' winning streak to six games. Eastern Illinois swept Tennessee Tech University last weekend at home. EIU's current streak began on April 12 when the Panthers salvaged the series finale against Southeast Missouri State University. Eastern Illinois has scored at least six runs in each game of the six-game winning streak.
The Panthers are led offensively by senior infielder Lizzie Stiverson, who is batting a team-high .364 with 24 RBIs. Sophomore utility Abbi Hatton has a team-high 34 RBIs with five home runs while batting nearly .280. In the pitching circle, senior Bryanna French (8-6) paces the club with a 4.08 ERA and has 60 strikeouts in 92.2 innings pitched. EIU's main starting hurlers, senior Karlie McKenzie (8-8) and sophomore Rylan Gick (10-4), are one and two, respectively, with 74 and 71 strikeouts. Gick has a 4.13 ERA in 103.1 innings, while McKenzie has a 4.95 ERA in 82 innings of work.
The three-game series between USI and Eastern Illinois can be seen with an ESPN+ subscription. Additional coverage and live stat links are available on the USI Softball schedule page on usiscreamingeagles.com.
