Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (29-20, 17-7 OVC) are 2025 Ohio Valley Conference regular season champions following a 9-7 Senior Day win over Western Illinois (18-32, 9-18 OVC) on Saturday afternoon. It is the Panthers' first regular season OVC title since 2009 and their fifth overall.

The game was tight throughout, with the Panthers out hitting the Leathernecks 12 to 11. The EIU offense was headlined by Jake Ottensmeier, who went 3-4 with four RBIs and a pair of triples. Tyler Castro (3-5, RBI) and Brett Stanley (2-3, RBI) also posted multi-hit performances.

Four Eastern arms saw action, with Anthony Solis giving up just one run with two strikeouts through 3.2 innings before giving way to Dalton Boruff, who picked up the win after eating up three innings in middle relief.

Christian Carew earned the save after giving up no runs on just one hit through the final inning and a third.

The opening frame was scoreless, but Western took their first lead of the series in the bottom of the second on a towering solo home run to left field by Tyler Large.

However, the Leatherneck advantage was short lived, and after a Joey Hagen single and Ethan Rossi walk in the bottom of the second, Jake Ottensmeier tripled down the left field line to clear the bases and push EIU in front.

Following scoreless third and fourth innings, WIU tied the game with a Liam Bushey RBI single in the top of the fifth before Peyton Wilson answered right back with a leadoff home run in EIU's half of the frame.

The tug-of-war continued in the next inning, with Western's Brock Lummus recording a solo shot of his own to make the score 3-3.

In the bottom of the sixth, an Ethan Rossi leadoff walk and Chris Worcester double put two runners in scoring position for Jake Ottensmeier, who promptly delivered his second two-RBI triple of the afternoon on a hard-hit ball that carried over the WIU center fielder.

The Panthers were not done there, though, and after Peyton Wilson singled and Brett Stanley was intentionally walked, Zak Goodwin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score another run.
With three still on and one out for EIU, Mike O'Conor singled to left field to extend the lead to 7-3.

However, the Panthers were unable to push anymore runs across following a WIU pitching change, and after loading the bases themselves in the top of the seventh, Western cut the lead in half on a Liam Bushey RBI single and Krayton Morse sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Panthers were able to stretch the lead back to four on a pair of RBI singles from Tyler Castro and Brett Stanley.

The Leathernecks refused to go away, though, and after loading the bases again in the top of the eighth, a run was walked home before a Krayton Morse RBI single cut the lead back to just two. With the bases still juiced, Christian Carew was able to get the inning's last out to preserve the Eastern lead.

After the Panthers were unable to find any insurance in the bottom of the eighth, Carew was brought back out to finish the job in the ninth. With a conference title on the line, the senior from Parker, Colorado retired the Western side in order to bring home the championship.

With the win, EIU locked up the No. 1 seed in next week's OVC Tournament presented by SERVPRO. The championship will be held May 21-24 at Mtn. Dew Park in Marion, Illinois. The Panthers will play their first game on Thursday at 11 a.m., with their opponent to be determined.