Eastern used a combination of timely hitting, good pitching and solid defense to complete its doubleheader sweep of Austin Peay on Friday at Williams Field.

Eastern junior second baseman Sarah Coppert provided late-game heroics in game one of the doubleheader as Eastern won 1-0 in eight innings.

Coppert hit a game-winning sacrifice fly to right field, driving in senior catcher Allyson Nolte for the game-winning run.

“(Timely hits) have been the difference in a lot of our games until now,” said sophomore shortstop Megan Nelson.

Before Friday’s games, the Panthers hadn’t gotten a lot of those hits, but now they are, Nelson said.

“(Coppert) knows what she needs to do in tough situations,” said sophomore center fielder Denee’ Menzione.

Senior pitcher Karyn Mackie kept the Lady Governors (4-14, 1-4 Ohio Valley Conference) from scoring in the first game. She only gave up four hits, walked one batter and struck out four.

It was Mackie’s first shutout of the season. She used her drop ball and got the Lady Govs to ground out eight times in eight innings. Mackie (4-4) even notched three assists on three groundouts.

“With different umpires, you can kind of stretch and see how far out you can push (the strike zone), and (Mackie) has a good curveball and a good outside (drop ball), and we used it to our advantage, ” Nolte said.

Mackie was at her busiest during the fourth inning.

Austin Peay sophomore catcher Daniella Hooper grounded out to Mackie. Mackie then struck out freshman first baseman Ashley Alverson.

Lady Govs’ sophomore shortstop Brittany Williams reached on an error as Mackie slipped trying to field the ground ball, but Mackie got junior Krista Henke to ground out right back to the mound in the next at bat.

“She looked on today,” said senior right fielder Robyn Mackie said. “She had that attitude (before the game).”

The second game was easy for the Eastern hitters.

The Panthers (9-11, 4-1) had eight runs on 11 hits as Eastern won 8-0 in six innings in a mercy-rule shortened game.

Eastern left just one person on base in the second game, an improvement from game one when the Panthers stranded six runners.

Nelson and Menzione went a combined 6-for-7 in the second game. Nelson scored two runs, and Menzione scored another.

“We’re starting to trust out legs a little more,” said Nelson, who had two stolen bases in the game. “We realize when you hit the ball on the ground, you’re going to make things happen.”

Eastern head coach Kim Schuette said Nelson and the other slap hitters focused last week, trying to put the ball in play.

Eastern senior Ashley Robison also kept the Lady Govs off-balance, allowing five hits and striking out three.

Robison (3-3) escaped a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning.

“That’s thing about (Robison), she’s so tough mentally,” Nelson said. “She almost lives for those jams. She could get herself out of anything”

Saturday’s game against the Lady Governors was canceled because of temperatures in the low 40s. The OVC has a cold-weather policy, and both teams and umpires mutually agreed the temperature was right at the threshold. The game will not be made up.

“Both myself and (Eastern head coach) Kim Schuette thought it was just a temperature below 35 degrees that would cancel a game,” said Austin Peay head coach Jim Perrin in a press release. “But once we got the conference rules out to check, it said temperature or wind chill. The local weather had it wouldn’t get above 28 or 29 degrees for wind chill all day, so that pretty much settled that, and the game was canceled.”

The Panthers return to action when they play Southeast Missouri at 3 p.m. on Tuesday in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.

Eastern Illinois University outfielder Megan Nelson hits against Austin Peay in the first game of Friday’s double-header. (Erin Matheny/ The Daily Eastern News)

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