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 JACKSON, Tenn. – The Panther baseball team continued its quest for a third Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title with an 11-2 win over No. 2 seed Eastern Kentucky on Thursday afternoon at Pringles Park. EIU improves to 28-27 on the year.
 
EIU used a balanced offense as every starter had a hit in the contest to post 15 hits on the day. Ryan Dineen led the way, going 2-for-3 with two runs and four RBI. He also had a home run and two sacrifice flies.
 
“We had to be aggressive at the plate today going against the OVC Pitcher of the Year in Matt Fyffe,” said Eastern Illinois head coach Jim Schmitz. “More impressively was our defense and pitching. We scored a lot of runs, but Troy (Barton) did a phenomenal job holding down the big bats of EKU.”
 
T.J. McManus added three hits, including two doubles, to go along with two RBI and a run scored. Jacob Reese added two hits and two RBI while Nathan Sopena chipped in a 2-for-3 plate performance with two runs. Ben Thoma also hit his team-leading 14^th home run of the season in the victory, tying the all-time school record of 39 career home runs set by Matt Marzec (1996-2000).
 
Dineen put the Panthers on the scoreboard in the top of the first with a solo home run, giving EIU an early 1-0 advantage. The Panthers scored two more unanswered runs over the next two innings before EKU cut its deficit to two (3-1) in the fourth. EIU made the score 4-1 in the fifth inning before scoring six runs on five hits in the following inning, pushing the Panther lead to nine (10-1).
 
EIU recorded an insurance run in the top of the seventh to make the score 11-1 before EKU scored its final run in the bottom of the eighth to cut its deficit to nine (11-2). The run in the eighth inning was the first earned run given up by the Panther pitching staff through two games in the OVC Tournament.
 
Troy Barton (9-5) picked up the win for EIU, striking out seven batters and only surrendering six hits and one unearned run in 6.2 innings of action. Relief pitchers Darin Worman and George Kalousek combined to only allow three hits and one run with two strikeouts in the final 2.1 innings of play.
 
OVC Pitcher of the Year Matt Fyffe (9-1) was tagged with the loss, surrendering 11 hits and nine runs in 5.1 innings. He also had six strikeouts and one walk in the contest.
 
The Panthers had six more hits (15-9) than EKU, but committed one more error (1-0) in the contest. EIU also left 13 runners on base to nine stranded Colonels base runners.
 
The Panthers return to OVC Tournament action at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 25 against No. 6 seed Southeast Missouri State. The winner of tomorrow's game will advance to the tournament championship game.