INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (15-20, 9-12 OVC) dropped another tightly contested non-conference game on Wednesday afternoon as they fell to Butler (18-31, 3-12 Big East) by a score of 12-11. Defensive errors doomed the Panthers, as only four of the Bulldogs' runs were earned.
The Bulldogs got out to an early 2-0 lead with a Carter Dorighi RBI single in the first inning and Ian Choi sacrifice fly in the second.
In the third, Eastern took advantage of a plethora of Butler miscues to take a 4-2 lead. After a throwing error and hit batter left the bases loaded, a wild pitch allowed
Robby Taul to score EIU's first run.
Following a strikeout, the Panthers tied the game when a passed ball allowed
Quade Peters to reach home plate. Following another hit by pitch,
Michael O'Conor and
Trenton Pallas recorded back-to-back RBI singles to put EIU in front.
The Panthers extended their lead further in the fourth inning with an RBI double off the bat of
Dylan Drumke followed by a
Cole Gober RBI single.
The four-run lead was short lived, however, as an EIU fielding error in the bottom of the fourth led to four unearned Butler runs to put the Bulldogs back in front by one.
The Panthers did not take long to respond, though, and after a
Kolten Poorman sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third, a
Robby Taul single gave EIU an 8-7 advantage.
The seesaw tilted back toward the Bulldogs in the bottom of the fifth after a wild pitch allowed Zach Munton to score from third before a Dorighi sacrifice fly gave Butler a 9-8 lead.
Following a scoreless sixth inning, the Bulldogs extended their lead to three runs in the seventh with a Joey Urban two-RBI double.
The Panthers closed the gap back to one in the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly from
Dylan Drumke and an RBI double off the bat of
Lucas Loos.
Trailing 11-10 in the ninth, a
Trenton Pallas lead off single followed by another
Kolten Poorman sacrifice bunt put the tying run in scoring position before
Quade Peters delivered an RBI single to tie the game.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, back-to-back Butler singles followed by another fielding error in the bottom of the ninth gave the Bulldogs a 12-11 walk-off win.
Three Panthers posted multi-hit outings, led by
Quade Peters who went 3-4 with three runs scored and an RBI.
Robby Taul was 2-4 with two RBI and a run scored, while
Trenton Pallas went 2-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Dylan Drumke went 1-3 with a pair of RBI, while
Lucas Loos extended his on-base streak to 40 games with a 1-3, one RBI outing.
The Panthers return to Coaches Stadium this weekend for their final home games of the season. They will be taking on Morehead State in a three-game set, with game one set to get underway Friday at 3 p.m.Â
