PINE BLUFF, Ark.  – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (7-11, 0-0 OVC) closed out their brief midweek series at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (2-20, 0-3 SWAC) with an emphatic 22-6 run-rule victory on Wednesday afternoon.

The Panthers racked up 21 earned runs on 14 hits, as 11 different EIU batters recorded knocks in the contest. Tyler Castro led the way with a 2-3, three RBI outing, while Zak Goodwin went 2-5 with two RBIs.

Mike O'Conor matched Castro with three RBIs, while Chris Worcester went 2-3 at the plate for his fourth consecutive multi-hit outing.

Five Eastern pitchers made appearances, with Eli Cartwright picking up his second win of the season after throwing two scoreless innings in relief with no hits allowed and four strikeouts.

Despite the massive offensive performance, the Panthers scored no runs on zero hits through the game's first two innings, with Pine Bluff taking an early lead on a Rodriguez RBI single in the first.

EIU's first offensive breakthrough came in the third inning, with Chris Worcester reaching on a lead-off triple before scoring on a Tyler Castro base hit in the next at-bat.

After Pierce Bauerle and Zak Goodwin both singled to load up the bases with no outs, Castro came home on a passed ball to give Eastern their first lead.

Ethan Rossi was intentionally walked to load the bases again for Cade Zalewski, who was hit by a pitch to advance Bauerle home before a Brett Stanley sacrifice fly scored Goodwin to make the score 4-1.

The Lions got two runs back in the bottom of the third before a pair of errors in the fourth allowed two more runs to score to put UAPB back ahead 5-4.

It was short-lived, however, as Eastern put up their second crooked number of the game in the fifth to regain a commanding lead. The Panthers scored six runs in the frame, all with two outs.

After three consecutive walks loaded the bases, Stanley scored on a wild pitch to tie the game. Worcester was walked later in the at-bat to reload the pads before Tyler Castro delivered a double that plated Quade Peters and Jake Ferguson.

The inning unraveled even further for Pine Bluff when another wild pitch allowed Worcester to score before Mike O'Conor finished things off with a two-run home run to left field to extend the lead to 10-5.

Following a scoreless sixth inning, the Panthers offense exploded for 12 runs in the seventh, which was their biggest inning of the season thus far.

10 Eastern batters came to the plate with nine runs scoring before the first out was recorded. There were a total of 15 at-bats in the frame, with eight resulting in hits, including RBI doubles from Ethan Rossi, James Love, Jake Ferguson, and Colin Horneman.

Mike O'Conor, Zak Goodwin, and Jake Ottensmeier also posted RBIs as part of the huge inning.

Pine Bluff needed eight runs in their half of the frame to avoid the run-rule, but were only able to muster one, ending the game after seven.

The Panthers return to Charleston for their home opener this weekend. EIU is set to begin OVC play with a three-game set against Lindenwood beginning at 2 p.m. on Friday. Games two and three will be played as a double-header beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday.