PRICE – The Utah State Eastern softball team began their second season as a program over the weekend with a five-game tournament in Las Vegas.

The Eagles went 2-3 in the tournament and Head Coach Brittani Richins says that she is happy with the first weekend of real games for her players.

"I think we did a lot of good things and there are some little things we have to work on but that is okay because we want to peak at the Region tournament," said Richins.

On Friday the Eagles loss to Central Arizona 8-5 and Yavapai 11-2. They lost one of Saturday's three-game schedule as well losing to Pima 4-1.

The Eagles however did pick up two wins on Saturday, 11-10 over El Paso and 5-4 over Arizona Western.

A groundout by sophomore Madison Blauer in the bottom of the seventh scored the game winning run to defeat El Paso on Saturday morning.

Against Arizona Western, the Eagles held off the Matadors come back in the later innings to pick up their second win of the season in the final game of the tournament.

Sophomore pitcher Angelique Lokeni said that her team's performance in the tournament  will be helpful moving forward in their schedule.

"I think it was a big confidence booster, none of the teams we played were bad teams and the games were very competitive," said Lokeni.

Freshman pitcher Carlye Levy made three starts for the Eagles in her debut weekend for the program. Levy pitched in 22.2 innings with one save, 12 strikeouts and a 4.94 ERA.

Lokeni also pitched for the Eagles and said that she was impressed with the way Levy performed in her first collegiate games.

"She did really good especially it being her for college games. She will do good this season and hold her own," said Lokeni.

Returning all-conference shortstop from last season Cassidy Howe batted .375 with six hits, seven runs, and two RBI's in five games.

Freshman Makenzie Isaacs surprised some with her debut at the plate for the Eagles. In three games she batted .500 with four hits, two runs, two RBIs and an On Base Percentage of .600.

Richins said that the first weekend of softball jitters got in the way of some players being able to perform the way she thinks they can play.

"We just need to focus on hitting and seeing the ball. We have a lot of really good hitters that didn't stand out and I think it was because of nerves and not staying confident with what they were taught," said Richins.

In their first season as a program in 2017, the Eagles won six games and won a tournament game against the College of Southern Nevada.

They will hit the road this weekend to Yuma, Arizona to play five more games on their non-conference schedule.

The Eagles open conference play on March 2nd with a four-game series against Colorado Northwest.