The No. 6 seed Eastern Kentucky University softball team is set to make its sixth consecutive appearance in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday when the Colonels face No. 3 seed SIUE.
The teams will play each other at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday in the tournament opener at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama. The winner will play Thursday at 1:30 ET and the loser will play Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.
The Cougars will be making their fifth straight appearance. The last three years, SIUE has made it to the championship game, winning it all in 2014 and losing the last two years.
Since joining the OVC in 2011 the two teams have only seen each other one time in tournament play – last year, when the Colonels were edged 3-2, on Championship Saturday.
Both teams feature some of the top players in the league. Eastern Kentucky’s Rachel Minogue leads the conference in batting average (.421) and in hits (69), is second in on-base percentage (.495), runs batted in (44), doubles (17) and fourth in total bases (98). Johnkyria Alston, meanwhile, leads the conference in doubles (19) and RBI (46).
SIUE boasts one of the top pitchers in the league in Haley Chambers-Book. She is hurling a stingy 1.19 ERA over 188.1 innings from the rubber. Opponents do not fair well against Chambers-Book, only batting .184 against her.
The Colonels come into tournament play riding a three-game winning streak after sweeping conference rival Morehead State, 9-2, and, 2-1, on Saturday.
SIUE swept Eastern in a doubleheader during the regular season (April 8). The Colonels are 5-13 all-time against the Cougars.
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Steve Fohl
Associate Director of EKUSports Communications