By Jose Briseno, Castle Country Radio:

The Eastern Softball team took a trip to Ephraim and took three games, out of four, from Snow to move into a tie for third place in the SWAC standings.

Emma Marchant got the start in the circle for game one. Marchant allowed just three hits and had four strikeouts as the Eagles handled the Badgers, 10-0. Kalsey Lopes continued her hot-hitting as she totaled three homeruns in game one. Skyler Lauer, Malorie Luck and Ally Oyanguren contributed offensively as well.

In game two, the Eagles walked away with a late-inning comeback that was capped off by an Oyanguren RBI single to left field. Eastern entered the final frame down 4-1 and ultimately walked away with the 5-4 win. Emma Marchant and Sydney Smith combined in the circle to hold the Badgers at bay. They allowed four runs on seven hits and combined for five strikeouts.

Game three brought the lone loss for the Eagles in the series as they fell 19-10 in an offensive onslaught by Snow. The Eagles were able to score in spurts, i.e., four runs in the fifth inning, but were unable to capitalize on their sixteen total hits in the game.

Eastern clinched the series in game four with a convincing 14-3 win on Saturday. Thanks to an eight-run first inning, the Eagles were able to run away and secure the series. The Eagle bats continued to show up in game four as the team totaled fifteen hits. Between the two Saturday games, the Eagles had 31 hits and mustered 24 runs.

“You can’t ask for much more as a coach,” head coach Shelby Shurtliff said. “Our girls played extremely well and gave us momentum heading into our series with CNCC. We also moved into a tie with CSN for third in the conference, and that is a good place to be as a team.”

At 14-14 in conference play, and 17-21 overall, the Eagles sit tied with the Coyotes of Southern Nevada for third place in the SWAC. Both teams have two conference series remaining before both teams face off in Henderson, Nevada in what could be the most important series of the season. Third place in the conference standings is important as the third-place team will face the last-place team in the first round of the end-of-season conference tournament.

Before their face-off with Southern Nevada, the Eagles will have to take care of business against the Colorado Northwestern Spartans and the conference-leading Southern Idaho Golden Eagles. Eastern, ideally, will need to sweep both teams to put themselves in a good position for the final series with CSN. However, the Eagles could go 6-2 in the next eight games to stay within arm’s reach of third place.
First pitch against the Spartans will be thrown from Rangely, Colorado on Friday, Apr. 22 at 1:00pm to kick-off a doubleheader.