MOREHEAD, Ky. –
Jordan Kreke homered for the third game in a row and posted his second career five-RBI game, leading Eastern Illinois baseball to a 10-1 victory at Morehead State Sunday that completed a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series sweep.
The Panthers (13-5, 3-0 OVC) finished their annual spring break trip with a 7-1 record, sweeping Morehead State (6-15, 0-3 OVC) for the fifth consecutive season. Eastern has posted a 9-3 record in the month of March.
Mike Recchia (4-0) was once again brilliant on the mound, pitching eight innings of five-hit ball. He struck out nine and issued only one walk. Morehead didn't score against him until the seventh inning. It marked the second time in his five starts this season that he has gone eight innings.
“Today was great pitching by Recchia,” EIU head coach
Jim Schmitz said. “He pitched a gem, with nine Ks in eight innings. We kept pecking away and took advantage of some opportunities later on. It's hard to sweep a team, no matter where you're at. We think we're pretty good. And Morehead is a very improved team. They pitched well these last two games, at least before today's game got out of hand. Game two was a big win yesterday.
“We came in serious about winning the series. We talked about going out and taking care of our business. I'm happy with how we're playing in a lot of ways. It's a good start to OVC play and that's all I care about right now.”
Recchia retired nine consecutive batters during one stretch. He registered two strikeouts in an inning on three occasions, and recorded the first out of an inning via the strikeout on five occasions. The right-hander only gave up one hit over the first five innings.
Brian Morrell pitched the ninth.
“He's pitching to both sides of the plate, and pitching inside very effectively,” said Schmitz of Recchia. “You've got to pitch to both sides. When he does that, he's really good. Then he's had guys leaning out on the breaking ball, to go with him throwing in the high 80s to low 90s. So he has really been mixing it up well.”
Kreke hit a three-run homer in EIU's four-run sixth inning that broke the game open. He later collected RBIs with a triple and a single. The senior finished the three-game series 10-for-15 with five extra-base hits and 12 RBIs.
“He's been working really hard, working on staying back,” said Schmitz of Kreke's hot hitting. “And he's stronger this year, so it's one of those things where he's feeling good about being in a position to hit. Both of his home runs yesterday were mammoth. Today it was more of a slap to right. But they were throwing us away all day. It's a good testimony. He struggled early on during his senior year. We told him to hang in there, and the hard work is beginning to pay off.”
Richie Derbak collected a pair of singles to extend his career-best hitting streak to 16 games.
Brett Nommensen also stretched his hitting streak to 12 games.
Jordan Tokarz doubled and homered, knocking in a pair of runs. Every Panther in the staring lineup had at least one hit, as EIU posted 16 as a team.
Zach Skidmore and
Jake Samuels registered back-to-back singles to open the sixth inning. Kreke followed with his seventh career homer. Derbak kept the line moving by reaching on an error by the third baseman.
Zach Borenstein followed with a base hit, Derbak moving up to third.
Curt Restko plated his classmate with a squeeze bunt.
Restko also scored EIU's first run of the game in the third inning. He led off with a single, stole second base and scored on Tokarz's two-out double.
In the seventh, Kreke tripled home Samuels and scored on a subsequent base hit by Derbak.
Tokarz homered with one out in the eighth, his second long ball of the series and fifth of the season. Kreke later plated Skidmore with a two-out single.
Restko was hit by a pitch with one out in the ninth.
Gerik Wallsten followed with a double and Nommensen plated Restko with a base hit.
The Panthers return to action Tuesday for a 3 p.m. midweek game at Chicago State. Eastern is slated to open its home schedule Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Illinois State. Morrell is expected to start Tuesday and
Mike Martin on Wednesday.
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Ben Turner, Asst. SID
