CHARLESTON, Ill. – Richie Derbak and Cam Strang both recorded three hits and the three pitchers out of the bullpen teamed up for five innings of scoreless relief, leading Eastern Illinois baseball to a 4-1 victory against Chicago State in its home opener Tuesday afternoon at Coaches Stadium.

 

The Panthers (4-14) improved to 15-1 in home openers during head coach Jim Schmitz's 16-year tenure.

Mike Hoekstra, Mike Recchia (2-2) and Matt Miller each pitched in relief and kept CSU (1-8) off the scoreboard. Hoekstra and Recchia both worked two scoreless innings and Miller closed out the game to earn his second save of the season.

 

Eastern starter Brent McNeil gave up a run in the first inning but only one hit the rest of his outing. He struck out five, including each of the final four batters he faced.

 

The Panthers did not issue a walk for the first time this season.

 

At the plate, EIU executed a season-high three sacrifice bunts. Eastern's first two runs of the day were scored by baserunners that moved into scoring position on a sac bunt.

 

Curt Restko and Gerik Wallsten executed the sacrifice bunts that moved runners into scoring position and led to runs. The next Panther that batted on both occasions doubled home the runner at second base.

Derbak tied the game with an RBI double in the third and Zach Borenstein put EIU ahead for good with a run-scoring double in the seventh. The Panthers tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth.

 

“We talked yesterday about our team and how we're different than last year's team,” Schmitz said. “We have to pitch and we have to play defense. We're going to bunt and if you don't want to do it, well. Maybe three weeks from now we'll start hitting a little bit more. But we've got to manufacture runs. We're trying to recognize the team we are versus acting like someone we're not. Maybe that's my fault because I didn't bunt a lot the first 17 games. But I looked at the games we won against UAB and South Florida, and two of them we bunted a lot. So we're going back to that.”

 

Eastern also left 10 men on base and hit into a pair of double plays with the bases loaded. Ryan Dineen lined into a twin killing with no outs in the second inning. After snaring the line drive, CSU first baseman Christian Prince dove head first and tagged the bag with his glove. Shawn Ferguson was out on the play after reaching safely on a sac bunt that was fumbled by Prince.

 

With runners on the corners and the go-ahead run across in the seventh, the Cougars intentionally walked Derbak to load the bases. The strategy worked out when Ben Thoma grounded into an inning-ended 4-6-3 double play.

 

The Panthers also turned a key twin killing late in the game. Back-to-back CSU singles in the eighth inning put the potential go-ahead run aboard with one out and the top of the order coming up. But Recchia got Michael Carpen to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. The Panthers then scored twice in the bottom of the frame.

 

Strang led off the eighth with a double to left and moved to third on a ground ball to the right side off the bat of Daniel Rowe. After a walk to Ferguson, Dineen laid down a bunt. Pitcher Colton Tortorello's throw went into EIU bullpen when Dineen and Prince collided at first base. Strang and Ferguson scored on the play.

 

Chicago State starter Austin McDowell gave his team a chance to win with seven innings of two-run ball. He walked Borenstein to leadoff the third, his only non-intentional walk of the day, and it led to EIU's first run.

 

Eastern and CSU will play again April 7 on Chicago's South Side.

The Panthers return to action Wednesday for a 3 p.m. midweek game at Southern Illinois. The probable pitching matchup is EIU's Troy Barton (Fr, RHP) vs. SIU's Jimmy Cornell (Sr, LHP).