RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Illinois baseball scored five two-out runs in the first inning and later blew the game open with a nine-run fifth en route to clinching an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament berth with a 20-7 victory at Eastern Kentucky Saturday.
The Panthers (23-28, 13-13 OVC) finished fourth in the final OVC regular-season standings and will match-up against Tennessee Tech (13-14 OVC) in the 4-5 game of the tournament's opening round Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in Paducah, Ky. EIU will be the home team thanks to the higher seed.
The victory Saturday was EIU's first true road win since April 13 at Murray State, snapping an eight-game losing streak at the opposition's ballpark. Not only were the 20 runs a season high, but during the aforementioned road losing streak EIU had only scored 22 times.
Richie Derbak homered twice, hitting a pair of two-run shots and registering the first multi-homer game by a Panther this season.
Alex Gee also went deep, hitting his first career long ball to cap the scoring during the nine-run rally. The five-RBI showing for Derbak and four-RBI performance from Gee represents career-high totals for both players.
“Yesterday was a disappointing day,” EIU head coach
Jim Schmitz said. “We had chances in both games and thus a chance to win two games. But the guys handled it really well knowing today was a must win. We didn't play like it was a must win though. We were aggressive and had some really good at-bats.
“The goal this season was to get back into the tournament, so I'm proud of the guys for their accomplishments. After not making it last year and adding 17 or 18 new players, I'm proud of how we regrouped despite some tough weekends. We've made some switches in the lineup as of late and they've paid off.
Alex Gee has provided some better at-bats and power. The guys have been working real hard on their swings, and we're a little bit more polished offensive team than we were at the beginning of the year. It'll be interesting to play Tech and it's exciting to be a four seed.”
Jordan Kreke collected three extra-base hits, doubling twice to go along with a leadoff triple to begin the fifth-inning rally. Kreke, Gee and
Ryan Lindquist each recorded two hits during the nine-run outburst.
Mike Recchia started on the mound and struck out a season-high five over 3 1/3 innings. He gave way to
Brian Morrell (4-1) in the fourth inning with EIU leading 7-3 and runners on first and second with one out. Morrell walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but escaped the jam without any additional runs scoring. He struck out four over 2 2/3 innings.
A double from Facer was the first of five two-out hits in the first inning. Lindquist was also hit by a pitch during the rally, a play that chased EKU starter Chris Grider (3-4). Facer's two-bagger plated Skidmore for the first run of the game. Derbak followed with a home run.
Kreke restarted the rally with a double and scored on a subsequent single by Gee.
Curt Restko capped the scoring with another RBI base hit.
The Panthers collected five straight hits to begin the fifth inning. After Kreke tripled, Gee recorded another RBI with an infield single and scored on a double by Lindquist. Restko followed with an infield hit and Nommensen plated Lindquist with an opposite-field single.
Skidmore picked up an RBI on an error by the EKU second baseman. A base hit from Facer plated another run. In their second at-bats of the frame, Kreke doubled home a pair and Gee homered to left to complete the scoring.
Despite not collecting a hit,
Jordan Tokarz registered two RBIs thanks to a pair of sacrifice flies. He plated Lindquist in the fourth and Nommensen in the sixth, the latter coming after a leadoff triple.
Derbak rounded out his big day with a two-out, run-scoring single in the sixth and his second long ball of the day in the eighth. The sophomore had hit one homer in his EIU career entering the day.
EIU last reached the 20-run plateau in a March 2005 win against Chicago State.
The Panthers will be looking to snap a four-game OVC Tournament losing streak next week. EIU will be making its 10th tourney appearance since joining the conference in 1997.
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Ben Turner, Asst. SID
