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CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (9-12, 2-1 OVC) split their Saturday doubleheader at Coaches Stadium to take their home and conference opening series against Lindenwood (10-14, 1-2 OVC).
Game 1 - Eastern Illinois 4, Lindenwood 3
Runs were at a premium in the day's opening game, but strong performances on the mound from
Anthony Solis and
Bryce Riggs lifted the Panthers to a 4-3 victory.
Solis (3-1) picked up the win after allowing three runs with seven strikeouts through 6.0 innings. Entering the game, he only had six strikeouts on the season.
Meanwhile, Riggs was awarded the save after allowing just one hit and zero runs with three strikeouts to protect EIU's one-run lead through the final three innings.
The EIU offense only scored a pair of earned runs on four hits, but were able to take advantage of a couple Lindenwood mishaps to find the difference-maker.
Following a scoreless first inning, Lindenwood struck first with a Sam Grunberg leadoff home run in the top of the second.
After Solis retired the next three batters in order, a
Mike O'Conor leadoff single followed by an
Ethan Rossi double put runners in scoring position for the Panthers, allowing
Brett Stanley to tie the game with a sacrifice fly.
After Rossi was left stranded, the Lions snatched the lead right back in the third with a Filip Sarota RBI single that plated Charlie Isom-McCall, who had initially reached base on a leadoff double.
In the bottom of the fourth,
Zak Goodwin was walked before a wild pitch followed by a passed ball allowed him to advance to third base. After not tagging on an O'Conor fly out, a
Tyler Castro groundout to second allowed Goodwin to score the tying run.
The stalemate was short lived, however, as Sarota drove in Isom-McCall once again, this time with a double. The Lions looked primed to extend the lead further with runners on second and third with one away, but Solis got a pop up and fly out to escape the inning with minimal damage.
The tug-of-war continued in the bottom of the fifth, as
Jake Ferguson worked a leadoff walk before coming all the way around to score on a throwing error by the LU pitcher trying to throw
Quade Peters out at first, who advanced to second.
With the go-ahead run in scoring position,
Joey Hagen singled up the middle to give the Panthers their first lead of the game.
With very little room for error, Solis and Riggs combined to allow just one hit and no runs through Lindenwood's final four at-bats to secure the series clinching victory.
Game 2 – Eastern Illinois 4, Lindenwood 14
Some explosive offense from the Lions, including four home runs, was the story in game two, as the Panthers dropped the series finale in seven innings.
Quade Peters led Eastern with two hits and two RBIs in the game. It was his second multi-hit outing of the series and third overall.
A pair of RBI doubles from Bryson Arnette and Mitch Cummins quickly put Lindenwood up 2-0 in the second before an Evan Funkhouser two-run homer to left field extended the lead to four.
EIU cut the lead in half in the bottom the second with RBI singles from
Quade Peters and
Chris Worcester before tying the game in the third with an RBI base hit from
Jake Ferguson along with another RBI single from Peters.
However, the Lions responded with another four spot in the fourth that included three consecutive solo home runs with two outs before a pair of three-run innings in the fifth and sixth grew their lead to 10.
With the run-rule in effect, the Panthers needed at least one run to extend the game, but were unable to reach base in either of their final two at-bats as they suffered their first setback of OVC play.
EIU will be back at it on Tuesday as they host Northern Illinois at 3 p.m. The Panthers will return to conference play next weekend with a three-game series at Morehead State beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. ET.
