NORMAL, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (26-20, 14-7 OVC) dropped their midweek contest at Illinois State (25-25, 13-11 MVC) by a score of 6-5 in extra innings on Tuesday. The Panthers erased a five-run deficit with a late rally, including a four-run ninth inning, but were never able to find the go-ahead run as the Redbirds won in walk-off fashion.
Five EIU batters recorded multi-hit outings, led by
James Love with a 3-5, two RBI performance.
Tyler Castro also recorded a pair of RBIs on two hits, while
Chris Worcester,
Mike O'Conor, and
Jake Ottensmeier posted two hits apiece.
After leading off the bottom of the first with a base hit, Kyle Gibson moved to second on a Noah Smith sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on a line out before coming home on a wild pitch to open the scoring for Illinois State.
Brayden Bakes extended the Redbird lead in the bottom of the second with a two-run homer down the left field line, and following back-to-back singles later in the frame, a Smith sacrifice fly plated Luke Stulga, who had stolen third.
Other than a
Mike O'Conor two-out triple in the third, the next two innings were quiet for both sides.
In the bottom of the fifth, Kyle Gibson walked to lead off the inning before moving into scoring position on a failed pickoff attempt, allowing him to score on a Judah Morris RBI single to center field, which stretched the lead to 5-0.
That is where the score remained entering the eighth inning, when Eastern loaded the bases with no outs after an error and consecutive walks to begin the frame. However, while the Panthers were able to score their first run on a 5-4-3 double play, they were unable to shave any more off the deficit.
Trailing by four in the top of the ninth,
Jake Ottensmeier and
Chris Worcester singled to begin the at-bat before both moving into scoring position on a passed ball.
Tyler Castro then doubled down the right field line to score both runners and cut the lead in half.
Following a groundout,
Brett Stanley reached on an infield single before another groundout moved runners to second and third with two outs. With the tying run in scoring position,
James Love smoked a ball to center field that landed safely just outside the reach of a diving Redbird defender, scoring Castro and Stanley to complete the EIU rally.
After
Nate Marshall retired the Illinois State side in order for the second consecutive inning to send the game to extras, EIU put two runners on with one out in the top of the tenth, but were unable to bring either runner home following a pitching change.
With the score still tied in the bottom of the tenth, Marshall retired his tenth and eleventh consecutive batters before putting the go-ahead run on base with a walk. With two-outs, a Josh Outlaw double to the gap in left center allowed the runner to advance all the way home from first for the walk-off win.
With the loss, EIU's all-time record against Illinois State falls to 92-87-1. It was the Panthers' eighth one-run loss of the season.
Next up for EIU is the regular season finale against Western Illinois. The Panthers will host the Leathernecks for a three-game series beginning on Thursday at 2 p.m.
