Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (28-20, 16-7 OVC) cruised to a key 10-2 win over Western Illinois (18-31, 9-17 OVC) on Tuesday afternoon at Coaches Stadium. Some early offense and strong pitching carried the Panthers to the series clinching victory.
Tyler Conklin was outstanding on the mound, moving his record to 4-1 after allowing just one run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts through five innings.
Christian Carew had a solid outing in relief, giving up one run on three hits with a trio of strikeouts.
Offensively, the Panthers were paced by
Mike O'Conor with a 4-5 performance.
Brett Stanley also recorded multiple hits, going 3-4 with an RBI. Meanwhile,
James Love posted a team-leading three RBIs.
Eastern wasted no time getting on the board, bringing five runs across in the opening frame.
Tyler Castro reached on an error to lead off the inning before a
Brett Stanley infield single put two on with no outs.
In the subsequent at-bat,
Zak Goodwin reached on a bunt single that forced an errant throw from the Western pitcher, allowing Castro to score.
Mike O'Conor followed that up with another bunt single that loaded the bases before
James Love was walked to bring in the second run.
With the bases still juiced,
Ethan Rossi doubled down the right field line to score O'Conor and Goodwin.
Chris Worcester capped off the big inning with an RBI single that plated Love.
The Panthers tacked on another run in the second with a
James Love two-out double to left field that allowed O'Conor to score all the way from first, extending the lead to 6-0.
After
Tyler Conklin retired the first seven Western batters of the game, a single by Kyree Alexander and double by Wandel Campana put a pair of Leathernecks in scoring position with just one out. However, Conklin was able to escape the jam with just one run scored on a Bushey sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the fourth, a pair of walks and a
Mike O'Conor base hit loaded the bases with one out for EIU. All three would come around to score, with
James Love extending the lead back out to six with a sacrifice fly before a towering
Ethan Rossi fly ball down the right field line gave the WIU outfielder trouble, allowing two more runs to come across.
Eastern cruised through the next three innings while stretching the lead to 10-1 on a
Brett Stanley RBI double in the bottom of the seventh.
The Leathernecks loaded the bases with one away in the top of the eighth, but were only able to score one run on a Paul Osting RBI walk before
Christian Carew wiggled out of danger with a strikeout and groundout.
Nate Marshall was brought in for the top of the ninth and retired the WIU side in order to seal the victory for Eastern Illinois.
The series finale is set for Saturday at 1 p.m., with four Panthers set to be recognized prior to the game for Senior Day.
