CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Tyler Kehrer pitched a complete-game one-hitter, striking out a career-high 14 and leading Eastern Illinois baseball to a 5-0 victory against SIU Edwardsville that completed a three-game series sweep Sunday afternoon at Coaches Stadium.

The Panthers (32-9) closed their season-long, 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record.

The Cougars (9-29) did not hit a fair ball out of the infield. The only hit Kehrer (4-3) gave up was a two-out infield single behind second base to Ryan Wiggs in the third inning. The junior left-hander retired the final 19 batters of the game in order. He did not issue a walk and got a whipped cream pie in the face from Brett Nommensen during a postgame interview.

 

It was Kehrer's second double-figure strikeout performance of the season after he fanned 12 in five innings against Butler on the final day of February. Eastern's last one-hitter was thrown by Brandon Murphy (7 1/3 IP) and Frank Simoncelli (2/3 IP) in February 2006 at Evansville. However, EIU lost the game 2-0.

 

Entering the weekend, the Panthers had not enjoyed a nine-inning shutout victory since May 2006. Eastern won both games one and three of the SIUE series in shutout fashion. The nine-inning complete game was the first of Kehrer's career. He put together the finest performance as a Panther in front of at least a dozen Major League Baseball scouts.

 

“With all the scouts in the stands, there has been a lot of pressure on [Kehrer],” EIU head coach Jim Schmitz said. “There's no way to prepare someone for that, you've just got to go pitch. For him to go do what he did on such a big stage with everybody here was very, very impressive. He's got that electric stuff.

 

“We talked about getting our edge and I thought we did that yesterday a little bit offensively. And then obviously TK got his edge back as a pitcher. We had our little down moment last weekend (losing two-of-three to Jacksonville State) and then this was one where we get it back a little bit. As you look at all three games, we had a good hitting big win, a lot of defensive in game two and then pitching. It's a good sign; all three parts of our game came together this weekend.”

 

Kehrer struck out the side in the fifth inning and the final batter of an inning seven times. The seventh inning, against the 2-3-4 portion of the SIUE order, was the only frame in which he did not record at least one K.

The game took less than two hours to play and did not feature an extra-base hit. Richie Derbak led EIU with two singles and an intentional walk. Ryan Lindquist had two RBIs and Zach Borenstein scored twice.

 

The Panthers scored an unearned run in third inning and tacked on at least one insurance run in three straight frames from the fifth through seventh. Jordan Tokarz (in the third) and Alex Gee (in the seventh) both registered two-out, run-scoring singles.

 

Borenstein reached on a two-out, two-base error by Wiggs in the third. Tokarz followed with an opposite-field single, knocking in the first run of the day.

 

Ben Thoma led off the fifth with a base hit and took second on a balk. Lindquist plated him with a single past the SIUE third baseman.

 

Gee ignited the sixth-inning rally with a one-out walk. Jordan Kreke followed with a base hit. After the first pitch to Derbak went to the backstop, SIUE chose to intentionally walk him to load the bases. Thoma popped out but Lindquist drew a walk to force in a run. Curt Restko singled through the left side to knock in a run. Derbak was thrown out a home on an accurate peg from Dustin Brooks.

 

Borenstein walked to begin the seventh. He moved up to second on a hit-and-run ground ball to third base off the bat of Zach Skidmore. Gee followed with a run-scoring hit through the left side.

Before next weekend's Ohio Valley Conference showdown series at Southeast Missouri, the Panthers take on Missouri and Southern Illinois in neutral-site midweek games. Tuesday's game against Missouri will be played Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo. Wednesday EIU hosts SIU at Grimes Field in Mattoon, Ill.

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID