Mady Poulter will be stepping onto Murray State’s field this weekend with her teammates as the Panthers continue OVC play.

Eastern softball’s freshman 3^rd baseman is from St. Joe Ogden where she received awards such as Rookie of the year, Gold Glove, First Team All-Conference, First Team All-Area, and even First Team All-State.

Coach Angie Nicholson was at her daughter’s softball tournament when she happened to see Poulter’s game in the same tournament in a different age group.

“She came and watched because one of my teammates is coming next year,” Poulter said. “After the game coach Nicholson came and invited me on an official visit,“ said Poulter.

Poulter accepted the invitation and said during her visit she instantly clicked with the entire team saying they seemed very much like a family and she enjoyed that aspect.

Poulter’s previous teammate Ashley Bartlett will be joining Poulter on the field next year here at Eastern where their assistant coach Stephanie Taylor said she believes they will work well with each other on the field.

“I think what it’s going to come down to is they are both gamers and mentally as players,” coach Taylor said. “That’s where they are going to work well together because they are going to be on the same page from the beginning, hard nose, go at it, true gamers.”

Poulter’s talent has brought it’s way to Eastern’s field where she has started every spring 2016 game so far equaling a total of 30 games for the season.

Poulter said she began her softball career at the age of 3 actually playing on her older brother’s baseball team.

At the age of 5 she began playing softball for her recreational team in her area and went on to begin her travel softball career at the age of 10, playing for New Lenox Lightning and Illinois Stars travel softball teams.

Taylor and Senior outfielder April Markowski noted Poulter’s immediate reaction to step-up though being a freshman on the team.

“She’s a great contribution to the team, especially as a freshman,” Markowski said. “It’s nice to have so many athletic freshmen come in this year.”

Taylor added Poulter came into Eastern confident in her abilities as a third baseman and set the tone for herself coming to Eastern in the fall and is a natural leader.

Poulter said she was only able to play two fall season games before she was taken out of the game for a month due to injury.

Poulter subluxated her patella meaning the patella slid out of place but was able to slide back in on its own, tearing the fibers of her patella and swelling up.

She was out for around a month she said where it was hard for her to be told she wasn’t allowed to participate in practice or fall season.

“That was the first time I was ever injured,” Poulter said. “In high school you don’t have an athletic trainer to tell you no you can’t do something so you play through the pain but in college you have someone who tells you no so you don’t hurt yourself further.”

Being a freshman with one semester under her belt, Poulter said she doesn’t have a problem getting to her classes and finishing her homework on time.

Poulter said she doesn’t struggle with being a student-athlete so far because if she has free time it’s spent with her teammates anyways and the long bus rides give her time to do her homework as long as the wi-fi isn’t acting up.

“It’s eye-opening to see how much time goes into it all, you only have time to go to class, softball, eat, and sleep but I’m completely okay with it because I enjoy it,” Poulter said.

Family support is important to Poulter as well, saying her dad has been her biggest influence in her sports career because he always supported her in everything she do and pushed her to be the best that she could be, Poulter said.

Poulter hopes to come out with a win in this upcoming away game at Murray State and to have some school support at their home game versus Eastern Kentucky the next weekend.

She is hoping to get out of the slump and go into the conference tournament strong with a couple wins to motivate them.

Cheyenne Fitzgerald can be reached at 581-2812 or cmfitzgerald@eiu.edu