William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be performed in the Backdoor Playhouse over the next two weeks. Mark Creter, professor of English at Tennessee Tech, will direct the play.

“It is one of my absolute, all-time favorite Shakespeare shows. We did it here in ’96,” said Creter. “Historically, there was a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ back in 1916, so when we did it in ‘96, it was kind of fun because it was the fi rst time there had been ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in town, really, since 1916. And then since it’s the hundredth anniversary, the Centennial this year, I loved the

idea of us doing it as part of the … it’s 2015, but … we’re close.”

Microbiology major, Bailee Michaels, plays the role of Moth.

“It’s basically a trifold love story with lots of mishaps interwoven in a dreamlike state,” said Michaels.

“It’s kind of a cacophony of relationships,” said Joshua Rapp, assistant director of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” “There’s a lot of story lines going on at the same time that are all connected … but they’re also interdependent, so like, they progress on their own, but little pieces of their progress change other people’s lives.”

Elections for the execu-tive offi cers of the Tennessee Tech Student Government Association will take place Tuesday, April 14.

Attempted election rule changes were put forth by the Executive Election Commission Committee of SGA, but were halted un-til the Fall 2015 semester. Because of this, the 2014 edi-tion of the rules are being enforced for this semester’s SGA executive and senate elections.

“The new election rules that we approved will be ef-fective July 1,” current SGA President Emily McDonald said. “For the SGA elections this year, we are following the previous election rules. All of our policy should be updated a year or semester prior.”

According to McDonald, SGA faculty adviser and Vice President of Student Affairs Marc Burnett told her that election rules could not be changed halfway through the semester.

The main revisions that were attempted for election rule changes included setting a $750 budget on all cam-paigns, the banning of can-didates’ ability to campaign door-to-door in the residence halls, the banning of the col-lection of T-numbers and/or pin numbers from students in attempts to vote by proxy for a candidate, and the elim-inating of the ability for a candidate to hand out bribes to be exchanged for votes. Additionally, a clause stating that all candidates must all be full-time students was in-cluded in the attempted rule change.

McDonald said that de-spite the attempted changes, all candidates for this semes-ter’s election are eligible to run offi ce.

“All candidates are at full-time status and meet the GPA requirement,” McDonald said. “Both the old version of the SGA Constitution and new up-dated SGA Constitution state that a candidate must be a full-time student.”

“The 2015 election rules added that statement about ‘full-time’ so that it refl ected the verbiage that is stated in the Constitution,” McDonald said. “That statement had previously never been stat-ed in the rules, but it has al-ways been stated in the SGA Constitution.”

McDonald said that in the future, it would be the re-sponsibility of the SGA to up-date rules one semester prior to any election.

“That is my fault for not taking the time to update the SGA election rules last se-mester,” McDonald said.

Running for SGA President is economics major Nathan Cole. Cole is current-ly the Secretary of State for SGA and is a member of Phi Delta Theta. Opposing Cole is chemical engineering grad-uate student Bobby Adams. Adams is currently the chairman of the Chapter 606

Student Moneys AllocationCommittee and a member ofPhi Gamma Delta fraternity.

The election for treasur-er in this year’s race is be-tween current Freshman SGA Senator Chase Womble andMiranda Stoltz.

Womble is a basic busi-ness major and is from Maryville, Tennessee whileStoltz is a political scienceand sociology major from Sevierville.

In this year’s election ofvice president and secretary of the SGA, both have justone person running for theoffi ces. Savannah Savage isrunning unopposed in therace for secretary and Nick Russell is running unop-posed for vice president.

“We have had manygreat leaders as part of SGAin the past,” said Russell, a sophomore mechani-cal engineering major from Chattanooga. “But in my time here, we have not had aclear vision of how we want-ed to impact student’s lives.It will be my mission as SGA Vice President to reach outto students across our cam-pus, fi nd out what would im-prove their experiences hereat Tech, and make that SGA’s vision over the next year.”

The polls for the election will open at 8 a.m. Tuesday, April 14 and will close at 5p.m. the same day.

Additionally onTuesday’s ballot, there willbe a section where studentscan write-in their sugges-tions for the Fall S.O.L.O.concert’s artists. The fallS.O.L.O. concert will be from the Pop genre. According to McDonald, these suggestionswill be reviewed, and a bal-lot will be formed consistingof fi ve to six artists that arewithin the budget of S.O.L.O.concert fund. This ballot willbe voted on during the April 23 SGA Senate election vote.

“Students’ input will behelpful for us so that we can compile a list of artists thatthe students are interested in having at TTU, McDonald said. “From the artists that are written-in, we will checkthe artist’s availability and pricing.”

According to the elec-tion rules, results from theelection will be posted out-side the SGA offi ce on the fi rst fl oor of the RoadenUniversity Center as soon asthe votes are calculated.

Juicy J performed at the Hooper Eblen Center Tuesday, April 7 for the spring S.O.L.O. concert with opening act DJ Enferno. The former Three 6 Mafi a member played in front of a crowd of approximately 6,500 people, said SGA President Emily McDonald.

DJ Enferno opened for Juicy J with an hourlong set that included live remixes as well as pre-recorded mixed tracks. Enferno performs approximately eight college shows a year.

“This year will be more, and it’s growing,” said Enferno. “It’s a lot of fun. The college crowd is pretty cool, especially with energy.”

After Enferno fi nished his set, Juicy J took the stage. During the performance, Juicy J performed excerpts from the Three 6 Mafi a catalogue, his verse from Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” as well as the chorus from his song “Bandz a Make Her Dance.” Students were split in their opinions of Juicy J’s show; some believed that this S.O.L.O. concert experience was the best of the nine performances Tennessee Tech has offered.

Basic business major Hunter Scruggs enjoyed the experience.

“I appreciate (Juicy J) as a performer because there was a lot more interaction with the crowd,” said Scruggs. “There was a moment where he walked around the whole audience.”

Seth Anderson, a chemical engineering major, enjoyed the concert atmosphere but had a different reaction to Juicy J’s set.

“Juicy J’s performance wasn’t that great,” said Anderson. “I noticed he had a cover guy right behind him the whole time. I think he might have been covering some of his lyrics too.”

Cookeville Police Department provided additional se-curity for the concert. Seventeen offi cers from Cookeville PD were initially requested by the University to provide a larger police presence. At approximately 10 p.m. four more Cookeville offi cers were sent to the Hoop to aid in crowd con-trol, said police sergeant Jon Giezentanner. In comparison to last semester’s S.O.L.O. concert featuring Neon Trees, only 13 offi cers were requested.

“We have had rap artists there before but it wasn’t that bad,” said Giezentanner. “It was worse than the other con-certs that have been there.”

At the S.O.L.O concert, Cookeville police made at least two arrests with at least one being made for underage intoxi-cation, said Giezentanner.

“We could’ve made several arrests, but we didn’t real-ly have the man power to arrest people, so we cut tags and sent them on their way,” said Cookeville patrol offi cer Shane Livingston.

Students and police offi cers reported smelling marijuana

smoke in the Hoop. “I didn’t see any, but I heard a lot of rumors about mari-

juana and smelled a lot of it,” said Livingston. “When I got into the crowd to look for it, I heard people talking about it and passing it around but never did see it.”

7,000 tickets were available for students to claim begin-ning March 24, all of which were distributed by Thursday, April 2. A total of 800 wristbands were distributed for fl oor access, while 760 wristbands were dispersed at the door on a fi rst come fi rst served basis.

Forty wristbands were awarded to 20 students who won the Student Government Association “Repost to Win” give-aways, said McDonald. The winners of the giveaway were granted fl oor access to the show.

Juicy J was paid $45,000 from SGA to perform at Tech, and Enferno was paid $6,000.

McDonald said she was satisfi ed with the level of enthu-siasm the student body displayed at the S.O.L.O. concert.

“During my time in SGA, I have always enjoyed seeing the success of these concerts,” said McDonald. “It is very re-warding to see our student body excited about attending the many concerts SGA has.”

Juicy J lights up CookevilleRapper Juicy J performs at the 2015 Spring S.O.L.O. Concert. Increased security at concert leads to arrests. Opening act, DJ Enferno is a Dark Horse to main performer.

By ADAM WEBBStaff Writer

& KIM BIGGSAsst. Managing Editor

THE ORACLEVolume 99 | Issue 17 | Free in single copy 1000 N. Dixie Ave. | Cookeville, TN | 38505

> Baseball knocks off instate rival

at MTSU

>>Page 6

> Matt and Kim drop new sounds with “New Glow”

>>Page 5

> EXCLUSIVE: Does age

define a person?>>Page 4

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Creter

The primary news source of the Golden Eagles since 1924Serving Tennessee Tech weekly during the fall and spring semesters

100% JUICE- Rapper Juicy J performs to a standing-room-only crowd in the Hooper Eblen Center at Tuesday’s concert.

By DRAKE FENLONManaging Editor

SGA executive elections Tuesday, campaign rules to remain same as 2014

Backdoor Playhouse opens Shakespeare classicBy KAYLEE GENTRY

Beat Reporter

Jason Williams | The OraclePHONES OUT- Members of the crowd pull out their phones during a portion of the show as instructed by Juicy J.

Drake Fenlon | The OracleCENTER STAGE- Juicy J performs one of his songs from his days recording with his former group, Three 6 Mafi a.

Bobby Adams

Nathan Cole

MirandaStoltz

Chase Womble

Candidates for SGA President:

Candidates for SGA Treasurer:

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>> Campustntechoracle.com

Contact us: oracle@tntech.eduNEWSPage 2 || THE ORACLE || COOKEVILLE, TN Friday, April 10, 2015

Tennessee Tech’s Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society held the annual Take Back the Night march around campus Tuesday evening.

The march was held in conjunction with the Clothesline Project, which was hosted by the Tech Women’s Center. Both events are meant to raise awareness and bring an end to sexual violence.

Take Back the Night began with featured guest speaker Tara Bates from Genesis House, a private, nonprofi t agency that is dedi-cated to empowering victims of domestic and sexual vio-lence in Cookeville.

The marchers began in the Tech Pride Room of the Roaden University Center then walked a loop around campus. Caitlin Jared, an alumna of Tech, said the at-mosphere of the march was an emotional experience.

“Walking around and reading the stories caused a range of emotions from an-ger to sadness that prepared everyone for the march,” said Jared.

Once the march be-

gan, the tone of the crowd changed.

“At fi rst I would say it was solemn,” said political science major Miranda Stoltz, “But once we started march-ing the crowd was getting fi red up and shouting as loud as they could throughout the walk.”

“The march itself has a lot of positive energy, with participants shouting out chants and holding up post-ers to draw awareness to the problem of sexual violence,” said Jennifer Anderson, as-sistant professor of sociology and political science as well as faculty adviser to Pi Sigma Alpha.

The event is always held on the fi rst Tuesday of April, according to Anderson, which this year coincided with Juicy J’s S.O.L.O. concert. Despite this, Take Back the Night was still able to take place at its regularly scheduled time.

“It was scheduled well in advance of the Juicy J con-cert,” said Anderson. “When we found out the concert was on the same date, we altered the start time so that students could attend both events.”

Although the events are meant to dissuade sexual vio-lence, Anderson and Stoltz think Tech’s campus is a safe

environment. “In my four years in-

volved with Take Back the Night, Tech’s campus has been very accommodating of the event, from the TTU po-lice serving as escorts to the feedback we receive from the campus community,” said Anderson.

Stoltz said the campus is safe to express views on this subject as well walking in the dark.

“As far as walking around at night I believe it is safe, but I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone because sexual vio-lence can happen anywhere,” Stoltz said.

techtech@eventsevents

1111All DayBFA Student Juried Art Exhibition Joan Derryberry Art Gallery

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Window on the World Roaden University Center

1 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. Tuba Quartets Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Softball vs. Jacksonville StateUniversity Tech Softball Field

2 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. Tuba Quartets RecitalWattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

3 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Austin Cooper, tuba, StudentRecital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Softball vs. Jacksonville StateUniversity Tech Softball Field

4 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. Guy Bortz, Michael Engelhart, euphonium, Student RecitalWattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

5 p.m. - 6 p.m. John Paul Powers, tuba, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

7 p.m. - 7:50 p.m. Curtiss Hoeppner, tuba, Adam Mullican, euphonium,Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

8 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. Amanda Werlein, euphonium, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

1010All DayBFA Student Juried Art Exhibition Joan Derryberry Art Gallery

All Day Event Sexual Assault Awareness Month Table RUC Lobby

6 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.Caleb Davidson, Aaron Whitfi eld, tuba, Student Recital Watternbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

6 p.m. - 8 p.m. STEM Fab Friday Millard Oakley STEM Center

7 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. Travis Roberson, tuba, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

8 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. Jason Talley, tuba, Student Recital Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building

www.tntech.edu/calendar

April

12 12 All DayBFA Student Juried Art Exhibition Joan Derryberry Art Gallery

1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Softball vs. Jacksonville State University Tech Softball Field

Aprogramming error caused the opinion piece “Never

too old, right?” to not be printed correctly. The full piece can be found on tntechoracle.com.

The Oracle regrets the error.

CORRECTION APR. 2, 2015

By ADAM WEBBStaff Writer

Tennessee Tech’s Offi ce of the Registrar is imple-menting a new online registration waitlist in order to ease student course registration frustration for Fall 2015.

According to the Offi ce of the Registrar’s web-page, the waitlist, which is available through the Eagle Online feature of Tech’s website, will allow stu-dents to save a place in line for a class that has previ-ously been closed to further enrollment due to all of the available seats already having been taken.

The waitlist will also allow students to see their position on the list, in regards to others who have al-ready signed up for the desired course. Once a spot opens in the actual class, an email will then be sent to the next person in line. That person will then have 24 hours to register before the slot is granted to the next student in line.

“It sucks when you have to wait a whole year to

try to get into a class, and it’s full, and they don’t offer it again until next year,” said Cameron Eden, an exer-cise science major. “If you try to get a permit, you end up going on a wild goose chase, running from corner to corner of campus.”

Eden said he doesn’t think the waitlist will work, because if someone forgets to check their email, they will get bumped to the back of the list regardless of how necessary the class is.

“I guess it’s fair though because it’s fi rst come fi rst serve. I still prefer asking for a permit face to face,” said Eden.

“I don’t really have issues with classes being full, but I always run into time confl icts,” said Denize Moore, a sophomore chemical engineering major. “I think the new system will be nice because maybe it’ll let other people know how high the demand is for some of these classes. Then, maybe they will open some more sections.”

The waitlist, as of now, is not available for all classes.

Online waitlist not available for all studentsBy LOGAN SHRUM

Beat Reporter

Pi Sigma Alpha hosts annual Take Back the Night march

Chuckles with Cheeny

Created by: "Cheeny the great" @ChuckleswCheeny

Creter and Rapp say this is the play to watch even if one doesn’t like Shakespeare.

“I hope everybody will come out and see it. It is a fun show. I have always made the argument that ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is the perfect show; not only for people who love Shakespeare because if you love Shakespeare, you probably love ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ but also for people who think they don’t love Shakespeare. ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a great play to come see because it’s very accessible, it’s very fun, it’s very fast, it’s one of Shakespeare’s most effi cient scripts as far as … the way he goes about telling the story,” said Creter. “So even if you think, ‘Oh, I’ve only read Shakespeare in class and it’s boring,’ it’s not, and this is a great show to really see Shakespeare as it’s meant to be done — which is live.”

“If anybody’s seen ‘Avenue Q’ or ‘Rocky Horror’ and they like the feel of those shows, then they’ll fi nd that in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ it just will be in Old English,” said Rapp. “What I en-courage people to do, especially people who don’t

watch Shakespeare a lot … Go watch the play and follow what’s going on physically and let the words underscore what’s going on. So you’ll get little bits of backstory from the dialogue … let the actors’ physicality and stuff onstage tell you what’s going on in the story.”

“There’s a big crazy fun thing at the end that is kind of unique to this production as my stamp as a director on it,” said Creter.

Creter also said that this would be the last play in the Backdoor Playhouse for a few months.

“We’re closing for renovation for a year,” said Rapp. “We’re looking currently at spaces on cam-pus. There have been a couple of potential spaces that haven’t been nailed down … There will be theatre. It will be a smaller space, so we’re looking

to do some more intimate shows, more interesting shows, which we’ve done in the past.”

“I am optimistically hopeful that the University will do what they say they do by getting the building done by the fall of 2016, so that we can move back in here, but we’ll see,” said Creter. “Temporarily we’ll be squatting over in Foundation Hall, and we’ll make the best of it.”

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be in the Backdoor Playhouse April 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. The late show will be April 16 at 10 p.m., and the matinee will be April 18 at 2 p.m.

Tech students get in free with their Tech ID, while general admission tickets are $15, senior citi-zens’ tickets are $12, and non-Tech student tickets are $5.

>> “Shakespeare”

Continued from Page 1

Courtesy of Backdoor Plahouse1916- The cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” perform on the Main Quad, circa 1916.

Mark Creter | Guest Contributor 2015- The cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” perform in the Backdoor Playhouse circa 2015.

Fox Murray | The OracleMARCH IN APRIL- Participants march down Dixie Avenue to raise awareness of sexual violence and assualt within not only Cookeville and Putnam County, but the world.

Fox Murray | The OracleTAKING BACK THE NIGHT- Miranda Stoltz (left) and Caitlin Jared (right) hold homemade signs to spread their message.

ONLINERead more content& stay up-to-date

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Campus << NEWSCOOKEVILLE, TN || THE ORACLE || Page 3Friday, April 10, 2015

One of the most important and infl uential American composers alive is coming to Tennessee Tech.

Steve Reich will host a question and answer ses-sion Sunday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Bryan Fine Arts Building’s Recital Hall. The Q-and-A will cover top-ics such as his music and life experiences and will include a discussion about one of Reich’s most re-cent compositions, “WTC 9/11.”

Reich is known as one of the pioneers of “mini-malist” music, or music that focuses on consonant harmony, steady pulse, gradual transformation and repeated motifs.

“Minimalist music, especially Reich’s, typical-ly utilizes rhythmic cycles, and as a percussionist, this is particularly interesting and fun to play,” said Colin Hill, interim professor of percussion and di-rector of Tech’s Percussion Ensemble.

Hill said the minimalism was a refreshing change from the highly complex music that had de-

veloped during the fi rst half of the 20th century.As for Reich, he doesn’t care about labeling his

music. He said composers don’t care about labels; they just write what they want to write.

“It was a time of change, for myself and others,” said Reich. “We went the way we wanted to go.”

Reich said he fi nds inspiration for his music through different means.

“I sit down at the keyboard and I improvise har-monies or melodic patterns,” said Reich, “or in the occasion of a text piece, the text will be the source of inspiration or the source of what to do.”

According to Reich, the text in “Daniel Variations” includes excerpts from the book of Daniel in the Bible and the last words of the American Jewish reporter Daniel Pearl before Muslim funda-mentalists murdered him.

“Reich is one of the most infl uential and gifted composers of our generation,” said Hill. “The oppor-tunity to meet and work with somebody of his cali-ber is something that students rarely experience.”

Dalton Hawkins, a senior music education ma-jor, is a member of the Percussion Ensemble and

is looking forward to the Q-and-A because he willhave a chance to sit down face to face and ask Reichanything that comes to mind.

“His music isn’t telling a story. He just comesup with patterns and ideas and fi nds a way to useunique orchestration techniques to get his ideaacross to the audience,” said Hawkins.

“Tehillim” and “Proverb,” two other of Reich’scompositions, make use of layering different voiceand instrumental lines to create dissonant and clash-ing chords.

Reich also said his compositions are rooted inspeech melody, meaning people tend to sing whiletalking without even noticing.

“I think it’s a great privilege to have the oppor-tunity to perform pieces by such a well-known liv-ing composer,” said Hawkins.

The Percussion Ensemble will host a free con-cert Monday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Bryan Fine ArtsBuilding’s Wattenbarger Auditorium, performingsome of Reich’s own compositions.

Reich’s visit is a Center Stage event and is freeand open to the public.

The Tennessee Tech Marketing Club and the Cookeville/Putnam County Animal Shelter are hosting “Barketing on the Quad” Saturday, April 11 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Main Quad. There will be food, music and games at the event as well as one or two dogs for students to play with for $2.

“We’ve all heard stories about other cam-puses bringing in animals for the students to play with, either during the school year or mainly fi -nals week, as an outlet for relieving stress,” said Marketing Club’s Content Coordinator Christian Osaile. “As a group, we thought this might be a perfect opportunity to bring to our campus, while also helping the growing population at the animal shelters.”

In order to help the growing population at the animal shelters, the Marketing Club asked the Cookeville/Putnam County Animal Shelter

to collaborate with them after they noticed how clubs at Tech have worked with the shelter in the past.

“It was originally the Marketing Club’s idea to do more of a 5k and bring the dogs for the students and community to run with. But after a discussion we decided that it might be easier on everybody – the club and shelter – to just hold the event on campus,” said Osaile.

From 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Cookeville/Putnam County Animal Shelter will set up on Main Quad for students who are interested in adopting a pet.

Debi Smith, volunteer coordinator at the Cookeville/Putnam County Animal Shelter, ex-plains that three dogs will be brought with them to the event, and the adoption fee is $80¬; this fee covers the adoption and the rabies vaccination.

“When you adopt, you will be able to go home with the dog that day. We are looking for someone with a good home. Ideally a closed in yard, but defi nitely a good home,” said Smith.

Smith said she is looking forward to thecrowd at the event and is hopeful for some adop-tions and donations as well.

“Adoptions and donations are a blessing.Therefore there isn’t any overcrowding and wecan cover supplies that are needed,” said Smith.

In addition to that, Smith said she is hope-ful that working with the Marketing Club bringsgreat awareness to the shelter and their cause.

“We want to bring awareness about spay andneutering and to correct the problem with over-crowding,” said Smith. “But also, we hope to in-spire people to volunteer at the shelter. We needpeople to clean, feed, love, walk – and all thosethings can’t happen without people.”

The Cookeville/Putnam County AnimalShelter is located on 2650 Gainesboro Grade,Cookeville, TN 38501 and is open Monday throughSaturday 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Sunday from7:30 a.m. until noon.

The Joan Derryberry Art Gallery is full of art produced by students at Tech. A variety of artists have displayed their works as part of the BFA Student Juried Exhibit.

With different artists come different mediums, and they range from vases to paintings to furniture spread throughout the room.

“There are approximately 20 students’ work on display, 29 artworks total,” said Kimberly Winkle, associate professor of art.

Samantha Rouse, a junior art education major, knows some of the artists on display.

“It hits home I guess because it’s, you know, our own people. That’s really cool though. It’s a big mix, so I like that,” said Rouse.

A panel of judges reviewed the art April 9.

“We have an esteemed guest juror, Namita Gupta Wiggers, who selects the award winners … The Volpe Library Art Committee has also selected an artwork to include in their permanent collection,” said Winkle.

The winners of the Student Juried Exhibit were: Sara Wiggins, honorable mention, Andrew Thompson, Heather Calfee and Dylan Loftis with Best of Show.

Students can stop by the Joan Derryberry Art Gallery to see these works of art and others.

“It’s an impressive display of our students’ skills and talents,” said Winkle.

An upcoming Center Stage event will feature Ed Barnhart, director of the Maya Exploration Center. Barnhart will be coming to Tech April 14 to speak about Maya Hieroglyphics.

Barnhart was a student of Linda Schele who broke the Maya code of hieroglyphics in 1973.

“It would be impossible to teach people how to read Maya hieroglyphics in an hour’s lecture. What I’m going to do is … tell the story of how the clues were put together and the personalities that were involved in the long years, the journey towards breaking the code,” said Barnhart.

Barnhart has had several years’ experience as an archaeologist and discovered the city of Ma’ax Na in 1995.

“It was the end of the second season after I had come back, and I looked at the entire cartography maps of the region and kind of played the game of, ‘If I was a Maya king, where would I put my city?’” said Barnhart. “It was neat, especially to be able to see someplace in the middle of nowhere on a map and say, ‘If I was a Maya king that’s where I would go,’ and be right about it – that was pretty darn exciting.”

Barnhart has also produced lectureships with The Great Courses.

“I have one 24-lecture course out on Ancient South America, and my latest one is a 48-lecture course on Maya to Aztec and everything in Mesoamerica,” said Barnhart.

Barnhart will be speaking in Clement Hall Room 212 at 11 a.m. April 14. The event will be free.

Art gallery features student works

Tennessee Tech students showcased their various talents at the TTU Coffee House Talent Show Wednesday night in the Tech Pride Room.

The event was fi lled with acts ranging from impressionists to singing a song about zombies on an ominchord, an instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation that acts as an electronic automated harp and looks like a giant Super Nintendo controller.

Drake Fenlon, managing editor of The Oracle, was one of the judges for the competition.

“It was a very tough decision for the judges. Lots of unique talent, for sure. Not just your run-of-the-mill guy with a guitar,” said Fenlon.

Freshman computer science major Joshua Barnard, also known by his stage name Josh-Shmosh, used an omnichord to engage the audience during his arrangement of “Your Brains”

by Jonathan Coulton.“I had other stuff planned, but it didn’t work

out. I write music on a pair of Nintendo Game Boys, but my hardware decided to corrupt,” said Barnard.

During his performance, the audience was asked to sing a portion of the chorus in the style of a hoard of fl esh-eating zombies.

Barnard won fi rst place in the competition, and he said he was surprised at the positive feedback of his performance.

“It was crazy and unexpected. I didn’t think I did that well at all,” said Barnard.

“Even though he forgot a few of his lyrics, he got the audience involved. That instrument he was using was interesting as well,” Fenlon said.

The event featured acts such as a hip-hop dance performance from Kyusok Lee, a mechanical engineering major, and a performance from the all male a cappella ensemble Mentonation.

Those acts were awarded second and third

place, respectively.Other acts included a barefoot, folk rendition

of “Shake It Off,” originally by Taylor Swift, a performance by Backdoor Playhouse Open Mic Night regular, Amanda Beard, and a performance by a student fl utist who hula-hooped while playing.

Big O’s Donuts, the Great Harvest Bread Company and Chartwells provided the refreshments for the event.

The event was a fundraiser for the Circle of Sisterhood, a foundation with the mission to “raise fi nancial resources for entities around the world that are removing educational barriers for girls and women facing poverty and oppression,” according to CircleOfSisterhood.org.

This was the second time the organization put on the event, and they plan on bringing it back next semester to fi nd students with even more hidden talents.

Zombies invade Panhellenic charity talent showBy DILLON JAMES

Beat Reporter

By SARAH TATECopy Editor

By HALEY GREENHOUSEBeat Reporter

By KAYLEE GENTRYBeat Reporter

Reich: Minimalist composer to visit campus

Barketing on the Quad to raise money for animal shelter

Drake Fenlon | The Oracle

EAT YOUR BRAINS- Joshua Barnard performs at the Panhellenic Council’s Coffee House Talent Show hosted Wednesday, April 8 in the Tech Pride Room. The event’s acts varied from zombie-inspired songs to inpressionists. Barnard, also referred to by his stage name Josh Shmosh, played an ominchord. The instrument is an electronic automated harp that has a video game appearance. The coffee house talent show was a fundraiser for the Circle of Sisterhood. The foundation aims to raise fi nancial resources for entities from around the world. This was the second time the coffee house talent show was hosted, and plans to hold the event again are in the process.

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Page 4 || THE ORACLE || COOKEVILLE, TN Friday, April 10, 2015

Age does not defi ne you

ADAM WEBBStaff Writer

STOP -The Rolling Stone story, “A Rape on Campus,” now has answers from a follow-up investigation by Columbia University.

Rape case gets walled

Adam Webb is a senior in Communication with a

concentration in Public Relations and News Editorial. He can be reached at

adwebb42@students.tntech.edu

Meme created by imgfl ip

KIMMY WHITTINGTONOpinion Editor

Kimmy Whittington is a senior in Communication with a

concentration in Public Relations She can be reached at

kemanning42@students.tntech.edu

“ Yo u ’ r e just a baby,” said the a u d a c i o u s server at a local restaurant I

will not name. He was looking over

my driver’s license to see if I was old enough to get a drink. I quickly found out that customer service does not have a stronghold in his life.

I don’t understand this riddle: if you want me to tip you, treat me like an adult, or at least with a little respect, OK?

I have fi nally hit a wall where I just can’t take the criticism for my age, for the fact that I look like I am in high school, or that I got married young. Apparently these are all items that make me vulnerable to teasing and insensitive commentary.

Listen, my fellow peers and I are getting our bachelor’s degree in one month and we do not deserve your biased commentary on whether we are old enough to handle it.

Some of my friends and myself included have chosen love at an early age; it does not mean we are incompetent or settling, we are just in a different place. Not a better place, a different one.

I am currently Fine Art/Metals undergrad at TTU. I would like everyone to know about my experience this semester with the RODP Survey of Art History I course. This is by far the worst learning experi-ence I have ever had, and I am at a complete loss as to why all of the great minds working at RODP and the Tennessee Board of Regents have been unable to correct the issue.

In a nut shell, students taking this course are not able to view their quizzes after the fi rst attempt to see what questions (if any) they

got wrong before taking the quiz the second time, and then after the second attempt, we are unable to view the quiz and see what the correct answers are, if any were missed. Basically we are being graded without opportunity for review so that we can learn from our mistakes. This has been an issue from the second week of the class. Amazingly, it was only a partial issue for the fi rst module as we were able to view both quiz attempts, but even after repeated emails to the instructor regarding what the correct answers were for questions missed, I was never given that information!

I went through the proper chain of command, notifying the instructor and after several fruitless attempts to have her address the issue with RODP techs, I put in a tick-et to the help desk at RODP in mid February. This also was a dead-end. After a couple of weeks and the issue still hadn’t been corrected, I contacted both the supervisor at

Lynnea Donai is a sophomore majoring in fi ne arts with a concentration in metals. She can be reached at lldonai42@students.tntech.edu

Letter to the EditorRODP and TTU RODP coordinator – the issue was escalated and the Tennessee Board of Regents became involved ... suffi ce it to say, we have just one month of the semester left and the problem still has not been corrected! What makes this a particularly galling experience is that I have no recourse for a refund at this point. I would have to drop the course, which would affect my fi nancial aid for the semester and going forward as I would then fall below part-time hours, petition for a refund, no guarantees there , and then take the course again at some point (not via RODP for sure)!!

Not only that, but every lecture posted in this course is full of misspelled words and grammatical errors!! Basic spell check/grammar check seems to be unavailable for the person(s) who wrote the material being presented to the students!

This is the worst learning experience I have ever had, online or in a physical class-room! The adage “you get what you pay for” does not apply in this situation as we pay additional tuition for the dubious privilege of taking a course via RODP!! I will never take another course with RODP and urge every student considering that option to think twice about it before investing their educational dollars with RODP!!!

Regardless, age doesn’t defi ne the decisions you make, and the decisions you make shouldn’t have to defi ne your age – please liberate yourself to the world free of ageism.

One of the most irritating things to come my way has been servers, especially the one I originally mentioned. Almost every time my husband and I go out to eat for dinner, we are succumbed to a server that gives us little attention, judges us for being young and offers little to no service. At fi rst we thought these circumstances might be a coincidence. However, it started happening … every time.

We realized that if we

went on separate occasions, we were treated more kindly, but when we were together, a switch went off – we became “unservable.”

We fi nally put two and two together: it was simply because of our age, and the fact that we tied the knot at 21 and 22.

Why should society get to defi ne what qualifi es as OK, or acceptable? Society is a hot mess that derives itself from collective ideas of indifference toward one another.

Whether I am getting my degree, walking down the aisle, traveling the world , or leading a movement – I am capable of them all.

My request and hope is that this message is

getting across, the message of acceptance. Age doesn’t defi ne the decisions you make, and the decisions you make shouldn’t have to defi ne your age.

Last fall, Rolling Stone published a story titled “A Rape on Campus” which de-picted a supposed rape com-mitted against a student on the University of Virginia’s campus.

The reporter, Sabrina Erdely, made a huge er-ror in judgment by choos-ing to write this story. Yes, rape is not an issue to take lightly, nor is it something to be brushed under the rug. Based on that merit, Erdely was in the right by attempt-ing to shed light on this issue at UVA, and really across the country, but she went about it in one of the worst ways.

I understand and can sympathize that Erdely wanted to keep the victim, “Jackie” anonymous, but that’s no excuse for not at-tempting to track down the

men who allegedly commit-ted the crime. What was sup-posed to be an investigative story with journalistic integ-rity has now been turned into a scandal that will more than likely hurt reputations for years to come.

In a scholastic year that

featured this story as well as the racially charged chant in the SAE fraternity chapter at the University of Oklahoma, greek life has not been paint-ed in the most positive light and “A Rape on Campus” certainly didn’t help. Erdely might be able to bounce back

from this set back, but the men of the greek system at UVA will be under scrutiny from university offi cials as well as their peers.

The police investigation, as well as an investigation conducted by UVA, found no evidence that Jackie’s rape

ever occurred. Despite the re-sults of these investigations, it stands to reason that the greek organizations will be held to the same standards as if evidence was found that this rape actually had occurred and Jackie will not be held liable for her actions.

If Erdely really did write the story to the best of her abili-ties as she claimed she did, one would think she would try to get both sides of a storybefore submitting it for print.

Since the conclusionof the investigation, RollingStone has removed the orig-inal story and published a report from ColumbiaUniversity giving the real facts of the story. While the Columbia report will helpalleviate some of the head-aches “A Rape on Campus” has most certainly caused, it won’t be able to fi x the tyr-anny the men of greek life onUVA’s campus have alreadyexperienced.

Reviews << ENTERTAINMENTCOOKEVILLE, TN || THE ORACLE || Page 5Friday, April 10, 2015

“Real Housewives of New York” return

By JAKE THREETEntertainment Editor

“Furious 7” a fi tting tribute to Walker

Full of in-tense action and a stunning trib-ute to the late Paul Walker, “Furious 7” ripped into the-aters last week-

end and made $384 million at the box offi ce worldwide, making it one of the highest grossing openings besides “Harry Potter” and “The Avengers.” While most se-ries lose steam after the fi rst few movies, the “Fast and Furious” franchise manages to reinvent itself and satisfy a huge cult following. Rotten Tomatoes gave the fi lm a generous 82 percent, so audi-ences can tell this fi lm means business. The movie picks up after “Fast and Furious 6” when the gang defeated international terrorist Owen Shaw and separated.

In “Furious 7,” his brother Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) sets out for revenge. Additionally, a struggle ensues between a Somali terrorist and shady government offi cial Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) to steal a computer terrorism program that can turn any technology into a weapon. The team must get back to-gether to both stop Shaw and retrieve the program from the clutches of the terrorist and the U.S. Government. Everyone comes back to reprise their roles, in-cluding Vin Diesel, Paul

Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Because Paul Walker passed away in November 2013 in the middle of produc-tion, extensive CGI work had to be done to complete the movie. His brothers and oth-er similarly sized actors had to stand in for shots and un-used fi lm from other movies was edited in. Additionally, the technology for matching his face is commended as some of the best CGI work to replace an actor in history. Watching the fi lm, it is almost impossible to tell that he has been doctored so heavily. Additionally, the fi lm is very respectful and gives a mean-ingful tribute to both his character and his person.

The fi lm provides enough action and excite-ment to continue the series in a powerful way. Not every

successful fi lm series can ad-just their plot and move for-ward, but ”Furious 7” man-ages it fl awlessly. The actors have a distinct chemistry with each other, presumably after working together for seven movies, but the rela-tionships work and translate well to audiences. Nothing seems faked or forced, except maybe some of the crazier car stunts.

Overall, “Furious 7” is powerful and moving, espe-cially for Paul Walker’s last fi lm. Any fan of the franchise is not going to be disap-pointed, and newer viewers will be entertained by the quick, fast-paced energy of the movie.

“Furious 7” is rated PG-13 for prolonged frenetic sequences of violence, ac-tion and mayhem, sugges-tive content and brief strong language.

ONE FINAL RIDE- Paul Walker (above) had shot around 50 percent of his scenes before he tragically passed away.

popsugar.com

By ADAM WEBBStaff Writer

By HANNAH BENJAMINEntertainment Critic

D a n c e -punk, synth-pop duo, Matt and Kim have re-leased their fol-low-up to 2012’s “ L i g h t n i n g Bolt,” entitled

“New Glow,” the band’s fi fth album since its inception in 2004.

This album features Matt and Kim sounding more like their rap infl uences rather than their quick, spry songs from their beginning. Matt’s vocal range is still on point, and the synth and keyboards still groove with the beat very well, but the drums don’t sound like something you need a drummer to play. The beats on this album al-most all sound like they were produced on drum machines by a producer rather than Kim. This has been a trend the duo started on their 2010 album “Sidewalks” and they’ve only increased that on “Lightning Bolt.”

Tracks like “Can You Blame Me” and “Killin’ Me” sound more like the original pop sound from which Matt and Kim gained their popu-larity. It’s a nice change of pace from the rest of the songs on the album, which sounds like they came straight from the pop-rap catalogue of the mid 2000s.

“Get It” and “Stirred Up” sound more like they belong on a Rihanna album instead of Matt and Kim. These tracks

feature the drum machines found throughout the album, but “Get It” is mostly devoid of Matt’s synth and the cho-rus sounds like the chorus from LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” but just a few oc-taves lower.

Despite some songs los-ing their way in the rap in-fl uences, there are still some groovy beats on the album that have just enough cre-dence to make this album still sound like Matt and Kim. “Not Alone” sounds some-thing like a companion piece to “Good Ole Fashioned Nightmare” from the duo’s 2009 album, “Grand.” The album’s lead single, “Hey Now,” has Kim smacking her drumsticks against the rims of her drum heads and Matt playing the keys in a more traditional tune to make an

XenoVerse not perfect, still fun game

infectiously catchy beat. This track also features horn sam-ples reminiscent of the band’s single “Cameras” from 2010.

Aside from the depar-ture of their dance-punk sound, Matt’s vocal delivery and song lyrics are still clas-sic Matt and Kim. With lyrics ranging from doing every-thing all day with a hoodie on, to making a mess like a kid, the New York-based duo are still about having fun.

Fans of the duo’s old-er work who didn’t enjoy “Lightning Bolt” will fi nd more of that sound here, rather than the dance-punk of “Grand.” But for fans of happy-go-lucky beats and catchy hooks but who are un-familiar with Matt and Kim, then “New Glow” is a perfect album to kick off the spring season.

GET IT- “New Glow” received mixed reviews from critics and currently holds a score of 52 out of 100 on Metacritic.

mattandkimmusic.com

DRAMA IN A NEW YORK MINUTE- Season seven of the series premiered to 1.5 million viewers, up from last year.

usmagazine.com

Matt and Kim still having fun on “New Glow”The out-of-mission game-

play features of “Dragon Ball XenoVerse” offer a full and robust character creator, stat allocation for fi ghting style customization, and the abil-ity to learn new skills from the show’s various heroes and villains themselves. The in-mission gameplay of this MMORPG handles like the series’ previous Raging Blast series. The combat feels pretty satisfying and simple, but with one issue: using any defense skill takes stamina, and once your stamina runs dry, you are helpless against incoming attacks. Also, side missions in the game ab-solutely love piling Super Saiyans against you, each with huge beam attacks that will kill your stamina and health.

The missions them-selves function exactly like you would think. The game shows you a simple objec-tive, usually typical RPG stuff – kill this, gather that. But even something simple has to have its complications. The game will sometimes ask you to do escort missions. Sometimes it’s fi ne, but other times they’ll stack the odds

By SHEA JAMESGuest Critic

against you so badly that it’ll be a miracle if you manage to actually achieve it, especially if you want to get an Ultimate Finish on a mission to get the best loot.

Much like Destiny, this game features randomly dropped loot. To this game’s credit, it actually bothers to show what you can earn from enemies before the mis-sion starts, but whether the enemy in question actually drops said loot is left up to chance. This means get ready to grind. Certain skills you can obtain in the game can also be incredibly, almost hi-lariously, broken beyond be-lief. For example, the Super Saiyan skill drains your Ki slowly, but while it’s active, skill costs nothing.

Not even extremely deadly Ultimate skills. This makes the Saiyan class, hands-down, the most over-powered class in the game. What’s worse is that the game knows how broken Super Saiyan is and uses plenty of them against you. You can AI allies, but the problem with that is the game’s AI is hope-lessly stupid (even enemy AI), so try to bring an online player with you if you can.

I have other nitpicks, but for now let’s talk about sound. Sound effects tend to

be satisfying but gratingly repetitive, and the music doesn’t leave much of an im-pact, but you’ll get absolutely sick of the hub town theme due to sheer repetition.

The fi nal thing to talk about would be the online portion of the game, which, thankfully, is not neces-sary to complete the game at all. Unfortunately, if you are connected, and then are suddenly disconnected, this will result in the player be-ing booted back to the start screen. This is frustrating, but the only time you’ll need on-line players is for certain mis-sions with cheap diffi culty, and being offl ine reduces the load time considerably.

All in all, “XenoVerse” is a fun game; it’s by no means perfect, but it fi lls a burn-ing desire in the hearts of “Dragon Ball” fans every-where and provides a pretty cool online beat-‘em-up ex-perience. It’s very fl awed but most of the people who would be interested in a game like this won’t care. Not to mention, this game could be considered an alternative for all of the gamers who feel burned by Destiny.

I give this game a six out of 10; recommended mostly to “Dragon Ball” fans and RPG afi cionados.

The B is back in New York City. The B being Bethenny Frankel on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City.” Season

seven premiered Tuesday, and after three seasons away making millions on her Skinny Girl products, do-ing her own reality show, and then doing a talk show, Bethenny is back to the show that made her a household name.

Fellow original house-wives Ramona Singer and the Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, who is making her return to fulltime sta-tus after being a “friend of” last season, have returned as well. The always hilari-ous and over-the-top Sonja Morgan also returns with Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, Kristen Taekman and newbie Dorinda Medley. If you’re keeping count, that’s eight full-time housewives this season. The fi rst time in history that has happened. So far, it doesn’t feel like too “man cook in the kitchen,” but we’ll see as the season progresses. Aviva Drescher is gone from the cast, and I couldn’t be more thankful. Albeit full of drama, she was too crazy and bitter, and the only she did right was toss her prosthetic leg across a room at someone.

The fi rst episode back was pretty much a catch-up with the cast and reintroduc-ing Bethenny to the audi-ence. It focused heavily on Bethenny but that was to be expected. The drama be-

gins next week, though, as Bethenny and Ramona go at it in the Hamptons. There are little things I love more than semi-classy women arguing deep in the Hamptons.

The premiere also fea-tured the trailer for the rest of the season and it looked wonderful. Full of laughs and drama, it proved that this might indeed be the best season of the New York housewives in a few years.

Besides the return of Bethenny, I am most look-ing forward to the Countess LuAnn returning as a full-time cast member. Even though she was only recur-ring last season, she won the show as the fan favorite and it was her best season to date. The trailer seems to predict that she will outdo herself this season and I couldn’t be more ready. As she says in her opening tagline, one should never count out the Countess.

During the premiere, we got introduced to the new-est addition, Dorinda. Funny and straight forward right off the bat, she easily will fi t in with this bunch of women.

She was featured a lot in the fi rst episode as well and sheproved her worth. If the pre-view is any indication, shewill more than hold her ownand may became a new fanfavorite.

And I can’t go withoutmentioning Sonja. This wom-an makes for such good TV. Sure, she may be a little too outrageous and I may worry for her at times, but Sonja is funny. She provides great co-medic relief to the show, even when she’s the hottest mess on the Upper East Side.

Easily my favorite of the housewives franchises,this season of New YorkCity looks to be full of great fun and enticing drama. The last couple of seasons havebeen good, but a changewas needed, and the returnof Bethenny feels right and the show feels like the sea-sons of past, which is a good thing. I’ve always said there’ssomething special about those New York ladies, and they have yet to prove me wrong.

“The Real Housewives of New York City” airs at 8 p.m.CDT Tuesdays on Bravo.

The Golden Eagles base-ball team was back on the road Tuesday evening, com-peting against rival Middle Tennessee State at Reese Smith Stadium, after winning two of three at home against Eastern Illinois. Tech broke an eight-game losing streak with the win against EIU April 2.

“That was great,” said head coach Matt Bragga about ending the streak. “Anytime things are not go-ing your way and you are not playing well enough to win, it just feels so good to get that W and get back to winning ways from a morale perspective.”

There would be no scor-ing from either team during the fi rst two innings Tuesday evening as each team strug-gled to put the ball in play.

Tech could not get the bats going in the top of the third, which allowed MTSU to take advantage in the bottom of the inning with a double to left fi eld by Dustin Delgado, scoring Will Schnure to make it 1-0 in favor of the Blue Raiders. It was more of the same from both teams in the fourth in-ning and then again in the fi fth with neither team scor-

ing and keeping the score 1-0 going into the top of the sixth inning.

Tech’s bats remained cold as they failed to get on the scoreboard in the top of the inning. The Blue Raiders would score one run in the bottom of the sixth courtesy of a single to right fi eld from outfi elder Brad Jarreau, scor-ing Will Schnure. The score was now 2-0 going into the seventh inning.

Tech’s bats would fi -nally catch fi re in the top of

the seventh thanks to a rally started by a two RBI double down the left fi eld line from outfi elder Tyler Brazleton, scoring Josh Pankratz and Ryan Flick, making the score now tied 2-2. The rally kept going from a single to center fi eld by David Allen, scoring Anthony El Chibani. Tech would end the top half of the inning with a three RBI double from Jordan Hopkins, scoring Dylan Bosheers, Tyler Brazelton and David Allen, making it 6-2 in favor of the

Golden Eagles.“Before that at-bat, when

I was going in I was just con-fi dent knowing I was gonna get a hit,” said senior Jordan Hopkins about his seventh-inning heroics. “He gave me a good pitch to hit and luck-ily we had some runners on base and that double meant something – we got some runs in.”

That would be all of the scoring Tech would need for the rest of the evening as MTSU would only score three

more runs all in the bottom of the eighth inning helping the Golden Eagles keep their lead and win the game 6-5 over their in-state rivals.

Tech was led by catcher Jordan Hopkins, who went two for fi ve with three RBIs. The Blue Raiders were led by outfi elder Jared Allen who went three for four with two RBIs. Jeb Scoggins was the winning pitcher for Tech, giving up one run on two hits in one inning of work, and the save went to Cain Sloan

who struck out one and al-lowed one hit in 1.2 inningsof work. The losing pitcherfor MTSU was Heath Slatton,who had a poor performanceallowing four earned runs onthree hits with not even an in-ning of work.

Tech will be backin action April 10, on theroad against OVC rivalJacksonville State for gameone of a three-game series.The series opener starts at 6p.m.

>> Inside the GameSPORTSPage 6 || THE ORACLE || COOKEVILLE, TN Friday, April 10, 2015

BASEBALL

By KYLE ROBINSON Beat Reporter

& SHEA HAILESports Editor

MisterClutch

HOP ON IT- Catcher Jordan Hopkins takes a swing during Tech’s late week series with EIU. Hopkins 3 RBI double gave the Tech a 6-5 lead against MTSU. Shea Haile | The Oracle

Baseball defeats Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro

SOFTBALL

Softball goes down to Georgia State, lose two

The Tennessee Tech softball team won three of four games over the weekend on the road against Eastern Illinois and SIUE. The biggest moment of the weekend came from Tech’s starting pitcher Danielle Liberatore. Saturday, against Eastern Illinois, Liberatore, would become the fi rst pitcher in Tech softball history to record two 15-strikeout games. Tech would win the game behind Liberatore’s strong outing 1-0. Tech would fi nish the weekend by winning two more games at SIUE, the number one team in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“I was very pleased,” said head coach Bonnie Bynum. “We went 3-1 against some of the better competition in our conference.” They were back on the road again Tuesday for a double header against Georgia State.

Georgia State would take advantage of Tech’s scoreless fi rst inning and score four runs in the bottom of the inning. The Golden Eagles would have to come back from an early defi cit, going into the top of the second down 4-0.

Golden Eagles infi elder Sabrie Neeb would triple to start off the top of the second and Bayli Cruse would single to right fi eld scoring Neeb and giving new life to Tech, the score now 4-1. Tech would score seven more runs in the inning thanks to RBIs from Angi Sakamoto and Olivia Bennett. A three-run homerun down the left fi eld line by Alyssa Richards would make the score 8-4 Tech go-ing into the bottom of the second.

Georgia State would answer Tech’s rally by scoring two of their own runs in the bot-tom half of the inning, making the game 8-6 in favor of the visiting Golden Eagles going into the top of the third.

The Panthers would continue to cut into the Golden Eagles’ lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI single from Ivie Drake. Tech, would fi nally get another run on the board in the top of the fourth, the score now stood 9-7. Georgia State would fail to capital-ize in the bottom of the inning and Tech still had the momentum going into the top of the fi fth inning.

Hannah Eldridge scored Callen Griffi n, giving Eldridge three RBIs in the game and putting Tech up 10-6 going into the bottom of the fi fth. Georgia State would hit a solo

shot to left fi eld, making it the only run the Panthers would score in the inning. Tech would still have the lead going into the topof the sixth 10-8.

Georgia State would end up scoring, ty-ing the game and going into extra innings.

In the extra frame, Tech still could notget anything going and failed to score arun in the top of the inning. In the bottomof the eighth, the Panthers received a triple by Ashley Christy, scoring Taylor Andersonand ultimately giving the Panthers an 11-10come-from-behind win.

In game two of the double header, Techwould try to avenge their loss from gameone. Tech would not start off well, failing to score in the top of the fi rst. Georgia Statewould start the scoring in the bottom of thefi rst with a throwing error by the GoldenEagles, scoring Taylor Anderson. MeganLitumbe would hit a two run shot to left fi eldmaking the score 3-0 Panthers in the earlygoing.

A Megan Litumbe homerun and a sac-rifi ce fl y from Lauren Coleman gave the Panthers a 5-0 advantage in the third.

The Golden Eagles Sabrie Neeb hit ahomerun in the top of the fourth, but that would be the only run Tech could managein the inning. In the bottom of the fourth in-ning, homeruns kept fl ying off the bats of Georgia State, adding two more runs for thePanthers.

Tech would not get any more runs inthe top of the fi fth inning and Georgia State capitalized yet again with an RBI single from Taylor Anderson and a grand slam fromCallie Alford, ultimately ending the game ona run rule 12-1.

Tech was led by infi elder Sabrie Neebwho had a homerun while the hostingPanthers were lead by third baseman CallieAlford, who went two for three with four RBIs and two runs scored. Hannah Weavertook the loss again for Tech with four earned runs and six hits in three innings of work,while the win went to the Panthers’ starting pitcher Taylor Thorpe, who had one earned run and three hits in fi ve innings of work.The loss dropped Tech to an 22-19 overall record.

“I thought we fought really hard the fi rst game,” said Bynum. “Unfortunately, the sec-ond game we did not carry that over.”

Next up for Tech is a double header at home Saturday, April 11, against OVC rivalJacksonville State. Game one of the doubleheader starts at 1 p.m.

By KYLE ROBINSON Beat Reporter

& SHEA HAILESports Editor