Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (14-25, 8-9 OVC) split their doubleheader against Southern Indiana (18-25, 7-10 OVC) on Thursday at Coaches Stadium. The Panthers took game one in a 4-2 pitcher's dual before dropping game two by a score of 8-1.

Game 1 – Eastern Illinois 4, Southern Indiana 2

In Thursday's opening contest, Eastern Illinois used a trio of solo home runs and strong pitching performances from Casey Perrenoud and Jonathon Hanscom to overcome Southern Indiana.

The Screaming Eagles opened the scoring early when Ren Tachioka scored on a fielding error by Michael O'Conor at third base.

However, it did not take O'Conor long to make amends for his mishap as he drove in Cole Gober with a single to right field in his first at-bat to make the score 1-1.

After two scoreless innings, USI regained the lead in the fourth with a Tachioka RBI groundout that plated Lane Crowden.

The Panthers responded in the fifth with their first of three solo homers as Dylan Drumke crushed a ball off the scoreboard in left field to make the score 2-2.

Eastern would take their first lead of the game in the sixth inning when Lucas Loos homered to left field to extend his on-base streak to 33 games.

The Screaming Eagles threatened in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded and two outs, but reliever Jonathon Hanscom worked out of the jam with a ground out to preserve Eastern's lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Panthers got an insurance run from Cole Gober who smoked a ball to deep center field for another home run before Hanscom finished things off in the ninth to pick up the win.

With the win, Hanscom moves to 1-2 on the season. His final line was no runs on two hits with a strikeout through 4.0 innings pitched.

Though not credited with the win, EIU starter Casey Perrenoud had another fantastic outing for the Panthers. The right-hander from Farley, Iowa went five complete innings while allowing just one earned run on six hits with six strikeouts.

Game 2 – Southern Indiana 8, Eastern Illinois 1

The Eastern bats struggled to get going in game two as USI evened up the series behind an early offensive explosion.

The Screaming Eagles scored six of their eight runs in the first two innings, including five of them in the opening frame.

USI put three runs on the board before EIU was able to record their first out on a Lane Cowden RBI ground out, and following sacrifice flies from Thomas Emerich and Terrick Thompson Allen, Southern Indiana had an early 6-0 lead after two.

Eastern got on the board in the bottom of the third as Lucas Loos recorded his second round-tripper of the afternoon, but the Panthers failed to produce any more runs in the ball game.

USI would score two more runs in the fifth with a Thomas Emerich RBI single and Ren Tachioka sacrifice fly, but the final four innings were rather quiet as neither team could get much more going offensively.

Bryce Riggs (3-2) suffered the loss while Carson Seeman (3-2) picked up the win after throwing six scoreless innings to close out the game.

Anthony Solis and Eli Cartwright combined for 4.2 scoreless innings in relief of Riggs.

The Panthers mustered just six hits in the game, with Lucas Loos and Tyler Castro leading the way with two knocks apiece.

Due to weather concerns, Southern Indiana will now host this weekend's series finale in Evansville on Saturday. The action is set to begin at 3 p.m.