MACOMB, Ill. – Eastern Illinois (9-18, 4-5 OVC) completed their first series sweep of the season with a pair of double header road wins against Western Illinois (6-21, 2-7 OVC) on Saturday. The Panthers won game one in dominant fashion before needing a ninth inning rally to take game two.
Game 1Â - Eastern Illinois 14, Western Illinois 5
In Saturday's opening contest, EIU rolled to a 14-5 victory behind some great pitching from
Bryce Riggs and five multi-run innings.
After a scoreless first inning, the Panthers offense took off with consecutive home runs by
Grant Lashure Quade Peters, and
Dylan Drumke. Lashure's long ball plated two before Peters' and Drumke's solo shots put EIU up 4-0.
Western got one run back in the bottom half the second, but the third and fourth innings were quiet for both teams.
Michael O'Conor broke the silence in the fifth with a two-run homer down the left field line to extend the Panther's lead to 6-1.
Eastern would pile on a few more runs in the sixth, as a bases loaded walk by
Quade Peters brought home
Tyler Castro before Peters and
Grant Lashure eventually scored on a throwing error by the Leathernecks third baseman.
After WIU scored a run in the bottom of the sixth, EIU responded with a pair of RBI singles by Lashure and Peters to make the score 11-2 at the seventh inning stretch.
While the offense was throwing up crooked numbers, starting pitcher
Bryce Riggs was holding things down on the bump. Riggs went seven complete innings, allowing just five hits and two runs with nine strikeouts.
Both teams tacked on a few runs in the final two innings, resulting in a final score of 14-5 as the Panthers locked up their first series win of the season.
Riggs (2-1) picked up the win while Colton Kachinsky (0-3) suffered the loss
.
EIU was led offensively by
Grant Lashure (3-4, HR, 3 RBI) and
Quade Peters (2-3, HR, 3 RBI) as the Panthers matched their second highest run total of the season.
Game 2 - Eastern Illinois 7, Western Illinois 4
While EIU led the entire first game, the second was nearly the exact opposite with the Panthers never holding a lead until the ninth inning. Eastern plated five runs in their final at bat to surge ahead and secure the sweep.
Unlike in the series' first two games, the Leathernecks struck first in the finale with a pair of runs in each of the first two innings.
After no runs were scored in the third, the Panthers offense broke through in the fourth inning as
Grant Lashure picked up another RBI with a sacrifice fly and
Tyler Castro scored on a throwing error by the Western pitcher on a pickoff attempt.
The Leathernecks threatened to break the game open in the fifth as they loaded the bases with no outs. However, EIU reliever
Casey Perrenoud locked in and struck out the next two batters swinging before getting a pop out to shallow right to escape the inning damage free.
Perrenoud had a fantastic outing for Eastern, as he gave up zero runs on two hits with five strikeouts through four and one third innings of work.
Heading into the ninth inning, the score held steady at 4-2 Western Illinois. However, with the game on the line, an EIU offense that had been held in check for much of the afternoon began finding some holes in the Western defense.
With one away,
Trenton Pallas got the rally started with a double down the left field line that drove in
Danny Infante, who had initially reached on a lead off walk.
In the next at bat,
Grant Lashure lofted a ball high into center field for what should have been a routine fly out. However, the WIU fielder dropped the ball which allowed Pallas to score the tying run on an error while Lashure ended up on base as the go-ahead.
Go ahead the Panthers would, as
Quade Peters stepped to the plate and delivered an extra base hit to plate Lashure from second, which gave Eastern their first lead of the game.
Now with the top of the order up,
Dylan Drumke provided some insurance with a two-run bomb to center field that put the Panthers up 7-4.
Jonathon Hanscom was inserted in the ninth inning and retired all three batters he faced to secure his second save of the season and finish off the series sweep for EIU.
Lukas Touma (1-0) was credited with the win after giving up zero runs with a strikeout through 1.2 innings of relief work.
Dylan Drumke kept things rolling at the plate, going 2-5 with a home run and two RBI, while
Trenton Pallas had a three-hit outing with an RBI.
The Panthers will return to Coaches Stadium on Tuesday, April 9th when they host Northern Illinois at 3 p.m. They will resume conference play with a home series against SIUE next weekend. Game one is set for 3 p.m. on Friday, April 12th.Â
