FRIDAY'S SCORES
@Northwestern 2,
Eastern Illinois 0
NORTHWESTERN 2, EASTERN ILLINOS 0
EVANSTON, Ill. -Eastern Illinois opened its first-ever NCAA Softball Regional with a 2-0 loss against host Northwestern on Friday afternoon at Drysdale Field.
EIU (34-20) will play Miami (Ohio) at 2:30 pm on Saturday in an elimination game.
Northwestern scored in the first as Skyler Shellmyer beat out an infield hit to open the game. A check-swing hit that stopped on the third base line by Jordyn Rudd pushed Shellmyer to third. She would come home to score on a bloop single by Hannah Cady just past short.
Those would be three of the five hits EIU pitcher Olivia Price (16-5) would allow in the complete game loss for the Panthers.
Danielle Williams (20-1) kept EIU's hitters on edge all afternoon allowing just three hits with ten strikeouts.
EIU's three hits came off the bat of Amber Cieplinski, Morgan Lewis and Aryn Henke. Cieplinski and Lewis had back-to-back singles with one out in the second with both stranded after Williams struck out the final two batters of the inning.
EIU's other scoring chance came in the third after Henke led off with a single and moved to second on a ground ball out. She tagged up and moved to third when Kendall Grover fouled out down the right field line, but EIU could not get the extra hit to bring her home.
Northwestern's second run came in the third with a solo home run by Kansas Robinson.
Northwestern (39-11) will face Kentucky in the winner's bracket game on Saturday. The loser of that game will face the winner of the EIU/Miami game in the final game on Saturday