The Eastern softball team earned a split Saturday at the Magic City Classic in Birmingham, Ala. beating Alabama State in five innings 14-1, before falling to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, 3-0.

The Panthers now stand at 3-3 on the early season as of Saturday.

Eastern recorded 17 total hits as six different players had a perfect day in the batter’s box in the 14-1 victory over Alabama State including freshman Morgan Biel.

Biel led the way by going 3-for-3 and recording her first collegiate home run in the fifth inning and junior Amanda Bilina also hit a home run in the win, going 2-for-2 on the day as she crushed a three-run blast to mark her second career base clearing shot.

“Our first game we definitely came out with a bang,” Biel said. “I was really happy with my performance for the first game.”

Freshman Stephanie Maday pitched three full innings and allowed no hits and just one walk to pick up her first career win, while sophomore Natalie Wunderlich finished the final two frames in relief.

Panthers against UAB gave up two runs in the first inning and another in the seventh to give UAB the win over the Panthers.

Senior Melinda Jackson led the Eastern offense with a 2-for-3 day, followed by freshman Reynae Hutchinson going 1-for-2.

Senior pitcher Amber May pitched the complete game loss to fall to 1-2 on the season as she retired three UAB batters off strikes and walked two. Unfortunately, she also gave up three earned runs off six hits. “I had a poor first inning. I hit the first batter and had two crucial walks later in the inning which lead to two runs.”

“The second game we still had that fight in us, but we fell short of runs in the end,” Biel said. “We all hit the ball hard, but sometimes it just never finds the gaps. This loss is not going to bring us down and we are going to bring it even harder next time.”

The Panthers lost to Stephen F. Austin 4-2 and lost 5-1 to Indiana State on Sunday.

Lenny Arquilla can be reached at 581-7644 or at lrarquilla@eiu.edu.