Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (27-20, 15-7 OVC) opened their season finale series against Western Illinois (18-30, 9-16 OVC) with a 13-8 victory on Thursday afternoon. The Panthers led by as many as 10 runs in the game before a big eighth inning from the Leathernecks tightened things up late.

Eastern built their lead largely thanks to an outstanding performance from starting pitcher Tyler Kapraun, who held Western scoreless through the game's first seven innings. Against his former club, Kapraun (6-4) allowed just two hits with three strikeouts on the way to picking up his team-high sixth win of the season.

Offensively, EIU totaled 17 hits compared to just five for WIU. Seven Panthers recorded multiple hits, led by Brett Stanley who went 3-5 with two runs scored and a pair of stolen bases. Meanwhile, Chris Worcester went 2-4 with a pair of RBIs for his 20th multi-hit game and ninth multi-RBI game of the season.

After a scoreless first inning, EIU got the scoring started by hanging up a crooked number in the bottom of the second. Following a Joey Hagen leadoff single, Ethan Rossi recorded his team-leading 13th sacrifice bunt to put a runner in scoring position.

After Chris Worcester was walked, Jake Ottensmeier scored Hagen with a double to left field to put EIU in front before Peyton Wilson cleared the bases with a triple to right center that pushed the lead to 3-0. With a man on third and just one away, Tyler Castro drove in the inning's final run with a sacrifice fly.

The score remained 4-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when a Zak Goodwin fielder's choice plated Brett Stanley, who had previously singled and stolen second before advancing to third on a balk.

Goodwin moved to second on the play thanks to a throwing error by the Western second baseman, and after advancing to third on a fly ball, came home to score on a Joey Hagen single to left field.

Following Kapraun's third 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth, the Panthers put up another four-spot to stretch the lead to 10-0. The frame included a Chris Worcester leadoff home run that was blasted over the scoreboard in left field, as well as RBI singles from Zak Goodwin, Mike O'Conor, and James Love.

Kapraun worked through another scoreless inning in the eighth, but after he exited the game, the Leathernecks exploded for eight runs in the eighth to cut their deficit to just two. WIU only recorded three hits in the frame, but one of those was a loud one, with Kyree Alexander homering to left center with the bases loaded for a grand slam.

With the game suddenly hanging in the balance, Eastern got some much-needed insurance with three unearned runs on the bottom of the eighth. With runners on the corners with two outs, a fielding error by the WIU shortstop allowed Brett Stanley to score.

Chris Worcester made Western pay further with an RBI single that scored Ethan Rossi before Jake Ottensmeier capped off the EIU response with his second RBI hit of the afternoon.

Now leading 13-8, Dalton Boruff was inserted into the game and retired the Western side in order to secure the win.

The Panthers and Leathernecks will run it back on Saturday, with game two now set to get underway at 11 a.m. due to the potential for inclement weather later in the day.