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MARION, Ill. - Eastern Illinois baseball (36-19, 13-11 OVC) continued to roll on through the Ohio Valley Conference Championships with an 8-2 victory over the No. 5 seed Tennessee Tech Thursday evening. EIU is one of three teams remaining in the tournament.

Starting pitcher Blake Malatestinic (W, 3-5) held off the Golden Eagles to help lead the Panthers to their first semifinals since 2012. Malatestinic pitched in 5.1 innings allowing two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts, his most Ks since April 8th.

Multiple Panthers came up with a clutch RBI in the victory including a two-run home run in the fifth inning by Chris Worcester. Grant Lashure also added a two RBI double down the right field line to give EIU insurance runs heading into the final stretch.

Eastern Illinois' 36 wins is the second most in schools history and the most since the 1998 season (37). Their 405 runs scored this season are the fourth most in school history and their 558 hits are sixth all-time.

QUICK STATS
Chris Worcester: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
Grant Lashure: 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI
Cole Gober: 2-5, 2 2B, RBI, R
Blake Malatestinic: W (3-5), 5.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 5 K
Ryan Ignoffo: S (4), 2.21 IP, H, 2 K

Malatestinic got off to a hot start against the Golden Eagles in the first inning. After allowing an opening single, he struck out the next three batters to get out of the inning.
 
The Panthers' offense stepped up in the bottom half of the first after only scoring one run earlier in the day. After a leadoff walk and advance to third by Lincoln Riley, Ryan Ignoffo drove in the first run of the game with a single down the third base line.
 
Nicholas Rucker then drove in another run with a double down the left field line to score Ignoffo from second. Gober went back-to-back with another RBI double to give EIU a 3-0 lead early on.
 
EIU's offense would load the bases in the second, but Tech would get out of trouble with a strikeout by Brody Lanham. Malatestinic also got a 4-6-3 double play to end the top of the third.
 
Both teams started to leave men on base in the fourth. In the top of the inning, with two outs the Golden Eagles got two men on, but Malatestinic got a foul out to end the inning. EIU also had two runners on, but Lanham ended the inning with another strikeout.
 
The fireworks came out in the fifth for the Panthers at the plate with their second home run of the tournament, this one off the bat of Worcester to put EIU up 5-0.
 
Tennessee Tech would break the scoreless drought with an RBI walk with the bases loaded by Preston Ford to cut into the lead. Colton Coca came on for Malatestinic in relief. Coca allowed just one run after a hit-by-pitch and preserved a three-run lead for EIU.
 
A bang-bang play at first went in Eastern Illinois' favor as Kolten Poorman ran out an infield single to score another run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Ignoffo then came in relief of Coca and got a 6-4-3 double play to end the seventh.
 
Heading into the eighth inning, the Panthers added two more insurance runs and pushed their lead to six runs. Lashure had his second hit of the evening with a double down into the corner in right field to score Lucas DiLuca and Ignoffo.

On the mound, Ignoffo picked up his fourth save of the season ending the game pitching the final 2.2 innings allowing just one hit with two strikeouts. Ignoffo also had two hits in the game while playing both ways.

EIU scored eight runs on 10 hits with no errors while TTU scored two runs on 11 hits with two errors. The Panthers will be back tomorrow as they take on the loser between Morehead State and Little Rock. EIU's game will start at 6:00 p.m. CT. For more information go to eiupanthers.com.