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Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois baseball (14-7, 1-2 OVC) wom their home opener at Coaches Stadium Wednesday evening with a 24-7 victory over Division III opponent Illinois Wesleyan (4-11, 0-0 CCIW). The Panthers scored 17 runs in the first inning including three home runs.
Dominic DiLello went against his former club and did not disappoint after going 2-4 with a three-run home run and five RBI. Designated hitter
Jared Evans also had three hits on the day including a home run and a double.
Starting pitcher
Mitch Alba (W, 1-0) earned his first win of the season after throwing in the first four innings and allowing three runs on three hits. Will Jackson (0-2) suffered the loss for the Titans after throwing in just 0.2 innings.
QUICK STATS
Dominic DiLello: 2-4, HR, 5 RBI, 2 R
Jared Evans: 3-3, HR,2B, 3 RBI, 3 R
Sean Lynch Jr.: 1-3, 3B, 3 RBI, 2 R
Mitch Alba: W (1-0), 4.0 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 2 K
Jack Potteiger: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R
The last time the Panthers scored 24 runs in a game was during the 2009 season when EIU defeated Blackburn college by a score of 24-4. Eastern put up 17 runs in the first inning as they went through 21 plate appearances.
After a quick innings work by Alba, EIU got on the board with a
Chris Worcester sac fly to score Riley from third.
Ryan Ignoffo would double and be brought home by Evans for the second run of the inning.
Cole Gober would score on a wild pitch while
Ben Gallaher delivered an RBI single.
DiLello would rip his no-doubt home run in the nine hole with two runners on the bring the game to 7-0. Ignoffo would then hit his fifth home run of the season with two runners on, and was followed two batters later with an Evans home run to bring the score to 12-0.
Joey Hagen, DiLello, Lynch (2) and Worcester would combine for the final five RBI of the inning to give EIU a 17-run cushion heading into the second.
The Titans would score all three of their runs of of Alba in the second inning after an RBI double by Jimmy Gurgone and RBI by Evan Hutson and Cade Tomhave. EIU would score five runs of their own in the bottom of the second including an RBI double by
Lucas DiLuca.
Dylan Drumke earned his first hit of the season in an exciting fashion with a two-run home run in the bottom of the third to bring EIU to a 24-3 lead. The Titans would score four more runs in the fourth including a triple from Blake Niebrugge that scored two runs.
Jack Potteiger finished the game in the bottom of the seventh by going one, two, three. It marked the first time that the Panthers had run ruled a team this season.
Eastern Illinois scored 24 runs on 18 hits with one error while Illinois Wesleyan scored seven runs on nine hits with three errors.
The Panthers will be back at Coaches Stadium this weekend for a double header on Saturday, April 1 against Butler. EIU will start the first game at 12:00 p.m. CT. For more updates go to eiupanthers.com.
