INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Eastern Illinois baseball (23-15, 4-8 OVC) defeats Butler (9-31, 2-7 Big East) 11-2 to tie the season series at two games each. EIU had four doubles in the game to lift the Panthers past the Bulldogs.
Kolten Poorman led Eastern at the plate with a double and four RBI.
Nicholas Rucker continues his hot play with a bases clearing three RBI double. EIU scored 10 of their runs by the way of an RBI.
Jackson Nichols (W, 3-0) maintains his perfect record with a 6.0 inning performance allowing six hits and two runs. It was his first runs given up this season on the mound. Shane Kilfoyle (L, 0-3) suffers the loss for Butler.
QUICK STATS
Ryan Ignoffo: 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI, 3 R, BB
Kolten Poorman: 2-2, 4 RBI, 2B, R, 3 BB
Nicholas Rucker: 1-3, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 BB
Jackson Nichols: W (3-0), 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 4 K
Jack Potteiger: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 K
Eastern's offense jumped out to the early lead after Poorman delivered an RBI single in the top of the first to score
Ryan Ignoffo. After allowing an early double in the bottom of the inning, Nichols got out of the jam with an inning ending 6-4-3 double play.
Four runs would come across the plate in the second for Eastern as Poorman recorded his second RBI on the afternoon with a bases loaded walk. Rucker then cleared the bases with a double to right center field to give EIU the 5-0 lead.
After Ignoffo tripled to right field to score
Lincoln Riley, he would score off of a wild pitch to the backstop. Butler would plate their first run in the bottom of the third with a Joey Urban RBI double.
Both offense's settled down in the fourth inning with zeros on the board. The Panthers then plated three more runs in the fifth with a sac fly by Ignoffo and a two RBI double by Poorman to put EIU ahead 10-1. Urban would add another RBI for Butler in the bottom of the fifth.
Jack Potteiger entered the game in the seventh for Eastern Illinois and pitched two scoreless innings allowing only one base runner while striking out three.
Jared Evans would score the final run for the Panthers in the eighth with a single to score
Chris Worcester.
Zane Robbins closed out the bottom of the ninth inning with three strikeouts to secure Eastern's 23rd victory of the season.
The Panthers scored 11 runs on 10 hits with no errors. Butler scored two runs on seven hits with two errors. EIU will be back at Coaches Stadium this weekend for a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series against Tennessee Tech. Fore more updates go to eiupanthers.com.
