Senior pitcher Amber May won her second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week award for her performance last week.

Last week, May went 4-0 with a 0.58 ERA, including three wins against Eastern Kentucky. She also struck out 31 batters in 24 and 1/3 innings of work.

The award was May’s fourth this season and the seventh of her career. Freshman pitcher Stephanie Maday also won the award once this season. May and Maday have led the Panthers to the best ERA in the nation, posting a 1.14 ERA in 34 games.

May now has 506 strikeouts for her career, which is second in Eastern history. Zam Mogil has Eastern’s record with 701 career strikeouts.

The Panthers will have five straight games at Williams Field, with Southeast Missouri coming to Charleston on Wednesday.

Panthers atop the OVC standings

Eastern remains on top of the conference standings, as they have been all season.

The Panthers are 14-1 in the OVC, followed closely behind by the University of Tennessee-Martin, who has a 13-3 record thus far. Both teams are currently riding five-game winning streaks; however, the Panthers are the only team in conference without a home loss.

Jacksonville State is only a half-game behind UT Martin with a record of 12-3. Jacksonville and Eastern are the only OVC teams that have surpassed 25 wins this season; both teams have recorded 27 on the year.

Every other school in the conference has lost at least seven games, making the race to host this year’s OVC tournament virtually between Eastern, UT Martin and Jacksonville State.

Around the OVC

Southeast Missouri beat Tennessee State 10-0 to improve to 17-21 overall and 11-7 in the OVC.

SEMO was able to pull out to a large lead in the first inning, scoring five runs on four hit and one error. The loss drops Tennessee State to 10-33 overall and 4-16 in conference play.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville was able to etch out a 6-5 over Tennessee Tech, as Whitney Davis knocked in her second straight game-winning hit.

SIU-E improved to 18-21 overall and 10-7 in the OVC, while Tennessee Tech dropped to 15-18 overall and 6-11 in conference play.

Rob Mortell can be reached at 581-7944 or rdmortell@eiu.edu

Maria Sorrentino, a junior infielder/outfielder, attempts to hit the ball during Eastern’s game against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Thursday at Williams Field. (Danny Damiani

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