Myrtle Beach, S.C.- Eastern University Softball opened their 2011 campaign with a pair of losses in South Carolina. After seeing their offense shut down for the first 11 innings of play, the Eagles rallied to score a pair in the bottom of the seventh against SUNYIT, but the comeback fell short with two base-runners.

In the second game of the day, Maggie McGowan allowed only four hits, but early season wildness and fielding miscues allowed the New York school to pull out to a 3-0 lead with a single run in the first and a pair in the third.

While the Eagles had some struggles in the field in their first day on an infield for the year, they also made some sparkling plays. The third inning ended with a catcher Sam Terenzoni throwing out a base-runner trying to take an extra base on a run-scoring play. Janelle Fair made a highlight stab of a line drive to start the second.

Eastern put the ball in play consistently through the game, but line drives and hard grounders seemed to find gloves, and the SUNYIT defensive players were equal to the task.

McGowan led off the bottom of the seventh with a ball that no defender was going to have a chance to make a play on. Her line drive to right-center cleared the outfield fence by 30 feet to give the Eagles their first run of the year. The shot was the seventh home run of McGowan's career.

After the next two batters grounded out, the Eagles needed production from the bottom third of the order to mount a rally. Louise Fox laced a two-strike pitch to left for her second base hit of the game. Fox moved to second on a Terenzoni walk and scored when Tori Jacobson cracked a single up the middle. 

The three-run deficit proved to be too great and Terenzoni was stranded on second to end the game. The rally, however, gave the Eagles a positive outlook for tomorrow's games.

"We hit the ball," said Head Coach Brittany Stroop, "there are things to work on, but we saw progress from game one to game two."

The Eagles opened the day with 10-0 loss to Dakota State University. The NAIA school scored a pair of runs in the first and two more in the third before putting a six-spot on the board in the fifth. Eastern mustered just a pair of hits against Trojan starter Jessica Shaw.