Eastern Illinois (26-19, 14-7 OVC) at Illinois State (24-25, 13-11 MVC)
Tue., May 13th | 5 p.m. | Normal, Ill. | Duffy Bass Field
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LEADING OFF: The Eastern Illinois baseball team dips back into nonconference play one more time this season with a trip to Normal to take on Illinois State on Tuesday. The Panthers are 12-12 in nonconference play this season, with a 16-16 record on the road.
SERIES HISTORY: Eastern leads the all-time series against the Redbirds 92-86-1. EIU took a 5-3 win in Normal last May.
ILLINOIS STATE:
- Illinois State is 24-25 overall with a 13-11 record in the Missouri Valley Conference. They are 13-8 at Duffy Bass Field this season.
- The Redbirds are batting .294 as a team this season, which is fourth best in the MVC. Daniel Pacella leads the team in batting average (.359), hits (71), doubles (17), home runs (17), and RBIs (53), which are all top five in the MVC.
- Illinois State has a team ERA of 6.17, which is third best in the MVC.
- The Redbirds are led by seventh-year head coach Steve Holm.
WEEKEND RECAP: EIU took two of three against SIUE in Edwardsville last weekend to win their sixth OVC series and eighth series overall.
The Panthers leaned on a pair of strong performances on the mound from
Tyler Kapraun and
Dalton Boruff to pick up a 4-1 win in the series opener. Kapraun moved his record to 5-4 on the season after allowing just one run on eight hits with seven strikeouts through the game's first five and two-thirds innings. Meanwhile, Boruff picked up his team-leading fifth save of the season, going the final 3.1 innings while allowing zero runs on three hits with three strikeouts.
Eastern won its fifth straight Ohio Valley Conference game and clinched the weekend series with an 8-4 victory over the Cougars on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers racked up 16 total hits, with
Zak Goodwin and
Jake Ottensmeier leading the team with three knocks apiece.
Mike O'Conor went 2-3 with a two-run home run.
EIU dropped the series finale by a score of 6-2 on Sunday afternoon. Eastern matched SIUE with eight hits but left 11 runners on base compared to just four left on for the Cougars.
QUICK HITTERS:
The Panthers are batting .285 as a team this season with a conference best .403 on-base percentage. Eastern leads the league in batters hit by pitch (77), and sacrifice bunts (65), which is also the most nationally. They are second in the conference in runs scored (350) and RBIs (313).
Eight EIU players are batting over .300 on the season, led by
Zak Goodwin with an average of .361. Goodwin also leads the team in on-base percentage (.511) and has reached base in a team-high 22 consecutive games.
Mike O'Conor is batting .315 while leading the team in home runs (10) and RBIs (36). O'Conor also leads EIU with 10 multi-RBI games and his .623 slugging percentage is fifth best in the OVC.
Chris Worcester leads the team in hits (57) and doubles (12) with a team-high 18 multi-hit performances.
Ethan Rossi is batting .301 overall with a team-best .380 average in conference play, which is fourth in the OVC. He leads the conference in sacrifice bunts (12) and is second on the team with five home runs.
Brett Stanley leads EIU with 24 stolen bases on 26 attempts, which is second most in the OVC. He has reached base in 18 consecutive games.
EIU has a 4.88 ERA, which is second best in the OVC. They have allowed the fewest earned runs (216) and fewest hits (426) in the league.
CATEGORY LEADERS:
Hits –
Chris Worcester (57),
Brett Stanley (47),
Ethan Rossi (43)
Home Runs –
Mike O'Conor (10),
Ethan Rossi (5),
Eli Hill/
Brett Stanley (3)
RBI –
Mike O'Conor (36),
Tyler Castro (32),
Brett Stanley (29)
Strikeouts –
Tyler Kapraun (57),
Tyler Conklin (38),
Dalton Boruff (37)
Wins –
Christian Carew/
Tyler Kapraun/
Anthony Solis (5),
Eli Cartwright/
Tyler Conklin (3)
ON DECK: The Panthers close out the regular season with a three-game home series against Western Illinois this weekend. Game one is set for Thursday at 2 p.m.Â
