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NORMAL, Ill. – The pitching trio of Troy Barton, Brent McNeil and Matt Miller teamed up for a four-hit effort and Eastern Illinois baseball scored in four straight innings late in the game to win at Illinois State, 6-1, Wednesday evening.
Zach Borenstein led the way for EIU (15-31) with three hits and scored twice. Ben Thoma came through with the go-ahead two-run double and Cam Strang and Shawn Ferguson also drove in a run.
Barton (2-4) struck out a season high seven over five innings, giving up only one run for a second consecutive midweek start against a Missouri Valley Conference opponent. Illinois State (24-19) entered the week leading the Valley race.
McNeil and Miller each surrendered only one hit over two innings of scoreless relief. Miller struck out four of the seven batters he faced. All four hits EIU pitchers allowed were singles.
Barton struck out five batters his first time through the ISU lineup. Only a two-out error in the second inning kept him from retiring the first 11 batters of the game in order. The only run the freshman righthander surrendered came on a two-out walk, stolen base and single in succession in the fourth inning. It was one of only two hits that he allowed.
McNeil recorded his eighth pickoff of the season to end the sixth inning and erase the only hit he surrendered. McNeil and the Panthers (22) are both ranked among the national leaders in pickoffs.
“It was our best game of the year,” EIU head coach Jim Schmitz said. “It was so impressive in terms of: you can't play the game if you're not aggressive. We just played an aggressive game tonight, pounding the strike zone, swinging the bats and scoring in multiple innings. We just kept putting runs on the board as the game went on.
“Troy Barton was outstanding. In and out, up and down [in the strike zone]; mostly fastballs, spotting fast balls all over the place. We didn't have Alex Gee tonight because of a funeral and Ryan Dineen was out with a bruised hand. [In their places] Brad Schweigert and George Kalousek get it started [in the sixth inning]. But it starts with the pitching and we know it. McNeil and Miller were both a big part of a real impressive performance.
“The word for the week has been potential. We certainly haven't played to it in midweek games. Today we just showed up and played and played well.”
Thoma put EIU ahead with a two-out, two-run double in the fifth inning, knocking in Richie Derbak and Borenstein.
Schweigert and Kalousek singled and doubled, respectively, to begin the sixth inning. Ferguson executed a sacrifice bunt to squeeze home Schweigert and extend the Panthers' lead to 3-1.
Doubles for Borenstein and Strang led to another EIU run in the seventh. Eastern took advantage of two wild pitches, a hit batter, a walk and another sac bunt to tack on the final two runs in the eighth.
The Panthers drew seven walks in the game while issuing only two. Each of the first four hitters in the EIU lineup drew a free pass. Eastern scored three times on six hits and four walks against ISU starter Ryan Camp (4-5) and also scored three times against the Redbirds' bullpen.
The victory was EIU's first in nonconference play on the road since winning both ends of a doubleheader at South Florida on the opening weekend of the spring break trip.
The Panthers return to action Friday when they host Indiana State at 3 p.m.
