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MARION, Ill. - Eastern Illinois baseball (37-19) advance to the Ohio Valley Conference Championship game for the first time since 2012 after their 5-1 win over the No. 2 seeded Trojans of Little Rock (31-23). It marks the seventh championship game appearances for the Panthers.

During their victory, EIU tied the all-time record in school history for most wins in a season with 37. The last team to have 37 wins was the 1998 team who also made it to the OVC Championship game.

Three different Panthers had three hits in the victory including three from Ryan Ignoffo. Ignoffo set the tone for EIU with an RBI in the first inning. Logan Eickhoff and Nicholas Rucker both had three hits and a run batted in.

Starting pitcher Jackson Nichols did not get a decision tonight, but kept the Panthers alive early in the game. Nichols pitched in 3.1 innings allowing just one run on five hits. Reliever Jonathon Hanscom (W, 2-1) earned the win after his 2.2 innings of work and five strikeouts.

The bullpen for Eastern Illinois allowed just three hits in 5.1 innings of work. The pitching staff retired the last eight batters including the rare four strikeout inning from closer Zane Robbins.

QUICK STATS
Ryan Ignoffo: 3-5, 2B, RBI, R | 1.1 IP, 0 H, K
Nicholas Rucker: 3-3, RBI, R
Logan Eickhoff: 3-5, RBI
Jackson Nichols: 3.1 IP, 5 H, R, K
Jonathon Hanscom: W (2-1), 2.2 IP, H, 5 K
Zane Robbins: 1.0 IP, 4 K

The Panthers started off their second straight game in this tournament with three runs. Lincoln Riley got on with a single and was brought home by Ignoffo after a double into right field.
 
Nicholas Rucker then scored Ignoffo after a shallow fly ball into center field dropped. Kolten Poorman had the final RBI with a sac fly into right field to put EIU up 3-0 early. Nichols stranded two runners in the bottom of the first including a 6-3 double play.
 
The Trojans got on the board in the second after Ty Rhoades singled into left field to score one. Eastern Illinois would get that run back in the top of the third after Logan Eickhoff bunted back to the pitcher to score Rucker. EIU would leave the bases loaded to end the inning.
 
Despite the early lead for the Panthers, EIU would leave the bases loaded again in the fourth after Lashure, Rucker and Eickhoff all singled. Eastern stranded nine runners through the first four innings.
 
Nichols ended his day on the mound after getting one out in the third inning. Reliever Jonathon Hanscom would take his place and strand two runners while getting the final out with a full count strikeout.
 
Both teams struggled to bring across runners in the middle innings. Hanscom dealt with some trouble in the sixth inning after a hit by pitch and a walk but would get a strikeout to end the rally for Little Rock.
 
EIU loaded the bases for the third time in the seventh but failed to score with two outs. Lashure flew out to center to get Erik McKnight out of the inning. EIU's reliever Colton Coca put two runners on during the seventh with two outs, but Ignoffo came in on the mound and got a groundout to close of the seventh.
 
The Panthers got back to their roots by playing small ball in the eighth. After a Jared Evans walk (pinch runner Sean Lynch Jr.), Cole Gober hit a sac bunt to advance the runner. Eickhoff then hit a ball up the middle to advance Lynch which led to an error that plated EIU's fifth run of the ballgame.
 
Ignoffo went back onto the mound in the eighth and went three up three down to maintain the Panthers' five run lead. Chris Worcester also had a diving play at short to save a single.

Robbins entered the game for his third appearance over the past five games in the OVC Tournament. He had struck out three straight batters before a wild pitch allowed a runner to reach first after a swing and miss. He would then strike out the final batter to end the game.

EIU scored five runs on 13 hits with zero errors. Little Rock scored one run onf eight hits with two errors.

Eastern Illinois will take on No. 1 Morehead State tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. CT for the OVC Title. For more updates go to eiupanthers.com.