:Photo Gallery (by Brendan Maloney)

AUSTIN, Texas – Eastern Illinois scored its first run in its NCAA Division I history in the top of the first inning but could not hold on falling to No. 6 national seed Texas, 10-2, on Friday afternoon in the opening round of the Austin Regional.

EIU falls to 34-21 and will play Central Florida at 2:30 pm on Saturday in an elimination game.  Texas improved to 47-10 and will play Michigan in the winner's bracket game on Saturday.

Abbey Crain opened the game with a walk and moved to third as Kendall Grover laced the first of her two doubles off the left field fence.  Crain would score two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Alisha Frederick.

The Longhorns answered with four runs in the bottom of the first with Reese Atwood delivering the big hit of the inning.  Atwood finished the game 4-for-4 with five RBI.

Texas extended the lead to 6-0 with two runs in the fourth before the Panthers could cut into the lead again. 

Abbi Hatton hit a double down the left field line in the top of the fifth to score Grover for the Panthers second run.  EIU finished with four total hits with Grover collecting two doubles.  Hatton had a double and Sophia Olman a single.

McKenzie Oslanzi (20-14) took the loss in the circle.  Cambria Salmon (7-1) picked up the win in relief for starter Citialy Guiterrez.

Ashton Maloney had three hits for Texas.