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Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois. baseball (17-13, 1-6 OVC) fell just short in game one of a three game Ohio Valley Conference series against newcomer Little Rock (19-12, 7-3 OVC) by a final score of 4-3. EIU rallied to score two runs in the ninth but fell short.
Lincoln Riley went 2-5 in the ballgame including an RBI in the ninth inning to cut the game to one.
Robby Taul also had an RBI in the ninth inning with a sac fly that brought in
Sean Lynch Jr.
Starting pitcher
Tyler Conklin (L, 3-4) had a solid outing despite the loss. Conklin threw in 7.1 innings allowing four hits and four runs while tying his season high in strikeouts with seven. Jackson Wells (W, 4-2) was the winning pitcher allowing just one unearned run in eight innings.
QUICK STATS
Lincoln Riley: 2-5, RBI, SB
Lucas DiLuca: 1-3, 2B
Robby Taul: 0-2, RBI, R, BB
Tyler Conklin: L (3-4), 7.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 7 K
Chaney Trout: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R
Conklin started the game off hot for the Panthers on the mound while not allowing a hit until the fifth inning. In the first he had two strikeouts.
Logan Eickhoff collected a single in the first and a stolen base but was left stranded.
After a scoreless second inning, the EIU defense turned their first double play of the afternoon after a lineout to
Kolten Poorman at third base who threw out the runner at second. Eastern got on the board in the third after a throwing error by Little Rock to bring home Taul from second.
Both pitchers had two scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth as Little Rock picked up their first hit of the game in the fifth on a double by Luke Pectol. Conklin would get out of the inning without any damage.
The Trojans scored three of their four runs in the sixth inning as Conklin hit two batters to lead off the inning. After a strikeout, Tyler Williams delivered an RBI single to bring in one run and Nico Baumbach added two more to bring the score to 3-1 Trojans.
Trey Hill picked up his first collegiate hit for Little Rock in the eighth with a solo home run off Conklin for the fourth run of the game. Trout would come into the game for Conklin and get a double play to end the top of the eighth.
The Panthers went into the bottom of the ninth trailing by three and got their first two base runners on in Evans and a double by Lashure. Taul would get an RBI sacrifice fly to bring home Lynch who pinch ran for Evans. Riley then delivered an RBI single to cut the lead to one before Eickhoff popped up to end the game.
Eastern would score three runs on seven hits with one error. The Trojans scored four runs on four hits with two errors. Tomorrow will be an OVC double header starting at 11:30 a.m. at Coaches Stadium. For more information go to eiupanthers.com.
