TALLAHASSEE, Fla – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (1-2, 0-0 OVC) picked up their first win of the 2024 season on Sunday, as they won game two of their double header against Florida A&M (2-1, 0-0 SWAC). After struggling to get things going in game one, the EIU line up came to life in the series finale to push the Panthers to victory in extra innings.
Game 1
Offense was hard to come by for the Panthers in Sunday's opener, as they fell to the Rattlers by a score of 4-0 in seven innings, which brought their overall record to 0-2.
After a scoreless first inning, FAMU got on the board in the bottom of the second when a Jakoby Stanley double with the bases loaded drove in two runs. The Rattlers would plate one more run in the inning to go up 3-0.
The next two innings were a stalemate, as the two teams combined for just one hit and no runs. The Rattlers would strike again in the bottom of the fifth with a Sebastian Greico RBI single. However, relief pitcher
Eli Cartwright would work his way out of a bases loaded jam to limit the damage.
The Panthers were unable to seize any momentum in the last two innings, as Florida A&M salted the game away with more strong pitching.
Casey Perrenoud (0-1) suffered the loss for EIU. In his Panthers debut, the junior college transfer struck out five batters through 4.0 innings pitched.
Eli Cartwright, another newcomer, struck out four and allowed zero runs through 2.0 innings of relief work.
Cole Gober reached base three times for the Eastern offense with a single, walk, and hit by pitch. He also stole two bases.
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Game 2
The Panthers offense flipped the script in game two, as the Eastern line up combined for three home runs and scored in five different innings to earn their first win of the season.
After FAMU scored a pair runs in the bottom of the first, EIU responded with two runs of their own in the next at-bat. The first score came when
Robby Taul singled to drive
Kolten Poorman in from third, which was immediately followed by a
Dylan Drumke sacrifice that plated
Danny Infante to tie the ball game.
Eastern followed that up with an offensive explosion in the third, as the wrecking crew of
Michael O'Conor,
Lucas Loos, and
Cole Gober smashed three consecutive homers. The long balls were EIU's first of the season and gave them an early 5-2 lead.
The Rattlers got two of those runs back in the top of the third, but
Danny Infante and
Kolten Poorman dove in a run each in the fifth to put the Panthers back up by three.
However, FAMU refused to go down quietly and fought their way back to force extra innings.
Robby Taul led off the extra frame by reaching base on a Rattlers error. Two batters later,
Trenton Pallas singled, leading to a FAMU throwing error that allowed Taul to score the go ahead run from second. Â
To seal the victory, EIU called upon the services of senior reliever
Colton Coca. In his first action of 2024, Coca put the FAMU line up down in order, including two strikeouts, to secure Eastern's first victory of the season.
Coca gets credit for the win to move to 1-0 on the season.
The Eastern offense was led by
Lucas Loos with three hits, including a home run and a double, and three runs scored.
In total, six different Panthers scored runs and seven recorded at least one RBI.
Next up for EIU is a three-game series at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Things will open up on Friday, February 23rd at 6 pm. Game two will follow on Saturday at 6 pm, with game three slated for 1 pm on Sunday.Â
