Former Altamont Standout Lemke Flips Commitment to EIU

Recent Altamont High School grad and softball standout Grace Lemke has flipped her commitment and will now make the move to play Division I softball. Lemke, who had previously signed to play at the junior college level at College of Lake County, has recently made the change to instead play for Eastern Illinois University. Lemke comes off of a season that saw her rack up 172 innings on the mound with 416 strikeouts, including her 1,000^th career strikeout in April), while putting together an 18-9 record with a 0.57 ERA and holding opposing batters to just a .069 batting average. Following the season, Lemke was named as a Co-MVP for the National Trail Conference this year to add to her 2024 MVP honor. Lemke will join a Panthers softball program that is coming off a 2025 season that saw them win the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title and the OVC Tournament Championship and make just their second ever trip to the NCAA Tournament where losses to #6 seed Texas and UCF ended their season 34-20. Lemke is now the second Altamont spring athlete to sign at EIU this year as classmate Ben Roedl will compete in Track & Field at EIU.