Tennessee State’s Melanie Cruz took advantage of having runners in scoring position.

The sophomore leftfielder drilled a three-run double over Lauren Brackett’s head in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against Eastern, giving TSU a 3-1 lead, which it held for the remainder of the game.

Eastern had its chances after Cruz’s fourth-inning, bases-clearing double, but couldn’t capitalize on them like Cruz did.

The Panthers stranded six runners on base in the final three innings, stranding two on third base and three on second base.

The missed opportunities prevented Eastern from winning the second game Saturday.

“We had much better pitch selection in the second half of the game than we did in the first half of the game,” said Eastern head coach Kim Schuette. “We just didn’t get the hit. We hit shot after shot. There were so many shots hit right at them.”

Eastern had runners on second and third, with two outs in the fifth inning before second baseman Sarah Coppert grounded out to end the inning.

The next inning, the Panthers had an even better scenario, with runners on second and third and one out. But senior designated player Katy Steele lined sharply back at TSU pitcher Candace Hildebrand and then sophomore outfielder Angela Danca flew out to centerfield to end the inning.

“You just have to go up there thinking with a positive mind and we had a lot of pop-ups and stuff when runners were on,” Coppert said, “so we just have to hit the ball on the ground more.”

In the seventh, Eastern had runners on first and second with two outs, before freshman outfielder Megan Nelson grounded out to second base to end the game.

Junior pitcher Karyn Mackie, who is hitting .244 with one home run and eight RBIs after this weekend’s series, said her approach when hitting in late-game situations with runners on base is to hit the ball on the ground, but make sure it gets out of the infield.

She did just that in the first game Saturday, when Eastern did capitalize on driving in runners in scoring position.

The Panthers trailed 2-1 heading into the sixth, but scored twice in the inning to come away with a 3-2 win.

Eastern did this by driving in runners in scoring position.

Senior catcher Sandyn Short singled to right field to start the inning and sophomore Chelsy Iapala and pinch ran for Short. Junior first baseman Robyn Mackie then singled as well to put Iapala in scoring position. Steele laid down a sacrifice bunt, which moved both runners up a base.

Then Danca came through.

The left-handed slap-hitter hit TSU pitcher Amanda Vaught’s first pitch up the middle, scoring Iapala.

“Angie did a nice job of going back to line drives and ground balls,” Schuette said. “Not trying to kill the ball and hit into little pop-ups. She was a little more disciplined in the first game and came through for us.”

Karyn Mackie remained disciplined in her at-bat following Danca.

Mackie worked the count to 3-2, before driving Vaught’s pitch to deep center field.

“I thought it was going to (get out), but the wind pushed it back in,” Mackie said.

The long fly ball was deep enough to score Karyn’s twin sister, Robyn, and give Eastern its 3-2 lead.

“She battled with two strikes and hit a nice shot to score her sister,” Schuette said.