RANTOUL, Ill. - Eastern Illinois (22-8, 5-1 OVC) earn their third straight win at the Rantoul Family Sports Complex as they defeated Valparaiso (11-17, 0-3 MVC) 7-5 Tuesday evening. Starting pitcher
Mac Hickman threw in 5.0 innings and allowed four hits, one run, and struck out three on his way to his second consecutive win.
Lucas DiLuca had himself a three hit game including a double to left center field.
Logan Eickhoff and
Dalton Doyle both had two RBIs in the win.
QUICK STATS
Lucas DiLuca: 3-4, 2B, 2R
Logan Eickhoff: 1-4, 2 RBI
Mac Hickman: W (2-0), 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Dalton Doyle: 0-3, 2 RBI
Nicholas Rucker: 2-3, 2B, RBI
Hayden Birdsong: 1.0 IP, 3 K
Mac Hickman started his evening strong with a scoreless first inning while tossing a strikeout.
Lincoln Riley would draw a walk to leadoff the game, one of three walks for Riley. After a passed ball, DiLuca hit Riley to third. Eickhoff stepped up and was able to hit into a fielder's choice to score the Panthers first run of the game.
Valparaiso was unable to get anything going in the second and third off of Hickman as he did not allowed a hit in either inning. After Riley's second walk and a double by DiLuca to put runners in scoring position, Eickhoff punched a single between third and short to score Riley. DiLuca would also score on a wild pitch in the inning. After a
Nathan Aide single, Doyle laid a sac bunt down to score Aide and put EIU up 4-1.
The Beacons were able to get on the board off of Hickman in the fifth as Nolan Tucker lead off the inning with a solo homerun. Hickman would manage to get out of the inning without any more damage.Â
EIU came back in the bottom of the fifth and put two more runs on. DiLuca started off the inning with his third hit of the ball game. Aide followed him with a single to left field which moved DiLuca to third. Rucker then hit another single to score DiLuca to extend the lead. Doyle would pick up his second RBI later in the inning with a groundout to score Aide and put EIU up six.
Hayden Birdsong would come in relief for Hickman in the sixth and throw three straight strikeouts for his only inning of work.
Jesse Wainscott then followed Birdsong in the seventh with a one, two, three inning.
Jackson Nichols came in the eighth and allowed two hits, but was able to get a huge pick-off at first to get out of the inning.
The Panthers struck for a final time in the bottom of the eighth with a double steal by
Ja'Lil Akbar at second and
Bryce Hayman at home to put seven on the board for EIU. Akbar would be thrown out on the play to end the inning.
Zane Robbins would come in to close out the game for EIU, but would struggle to close out the game. Valpo lead off the inning with a double by Brady Renfro. Robbins got a strikeout after that for the first out. After two straight walks, Jeremy Drudge hit a ball to left center off the wall to score three and put Valpo within striking distance. Robbins would give up one more RBI before closing out the game with a fly out to center field and end the game with a score of 7-5.
EIU scored seven runs on 12 hits and had two errors. Valpo scored five runs on nine hits and had one error. The Panthers will be back this weekend for an OVC weekend in Austin Peay starting on Thursday. Livestats and ESPN+ will be made available.
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