Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

MARION, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team (29-21, 17-7 OVC) dropped a 9-8 extra innings heartbreaker against Little Rock (22-32, 8-16 OVC) in their opening game of the OVC Tournament on Thursday. After falling behind 6-0 in the early going, the Panthers showed great resilience to come all the way back to tie the game, but ultimately fell short in extra innings.

Four EIU batters recorded multiple hits, including Tyler Castro who went 3-4 with a double and a career-high five RBIs. Peyton Wilson joined him with three hits, including an RBI triple, while Chris Worcester went 2-5 with a double and a pair of RBIs. James Love also posted a multi-hit outing (2-5). 

Four Eastern pitchers saw action, including Christian Carew who suffered the loss despite allowing just one run on one hit with three strikeouts through 3.2 innings in relief.

The Trojans jumped on the Panthers early with six runs in the first two innings, with Cade Martin opening up the scoring with an RBI base hit in the first before Little Rock hung a five-spot in the second.

The first three Little Rock batters of the inning reached base before Alex Seguine drove in two with a bases loaded single to left field. With two still on, Ryan Geck homered down the left field line to extend the Trojan lead to 6-0.

Three doubles aided a two-run response for EIU in the bottom of the second. Following a one-out double from Ethan Rossi, a Chris Worcester RBI double to left center got Eastern on the board.

With two outs, Tyler Castro laced a ball to center field that got past a diving Little Rock defender to plate Worcester, making the score 6-2.

After a scoreless third inning, the Panthers chipped one more run off the deficit in the bottom of the fourth with another Tyler Castro RBI, this one a groundout with runners on the corners.

However, Little Rock got the run right back in the top of the fifth with a Cooper Chaplain solo homer to right field.

With the score still 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Jake Ottensmeier reached on a one-out hustle double before coming around to score on a Peyton Wilson RBI triple. The Panthers then cut the deficit to two as Tyler Castro recorded his third RBI in as many at-bats with a base hit to right field.

After the Trojans put runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the seventh, Chaplain extended the lead with an RBI single to left, but a great throw from Brett Stanley nailed the potential second run at home to limit the damage.

In the bottom of the seventh, Eastern loaded the bases with two outs for Tyler Castro, who kept his big day going with a two-RBI single to right field, running up his RBI total to five in the game as the Panthers pulled within a run, 8-7.

After Christian Carew sat down the Little Rock side in order in the top of the eighth, Mike O'Conor and Ethan Rossi were walked to put two on with two outs for EIU. After O'Conor advanced to third on a wild pitch, Chris Worcester delivered a base hit up the middle to tie the game.

After another perfect inning from Carew, the Panthers had the winning run on third base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but were unable to find the walk off moment.

The missed opportunity proved costly, as after Chaplain was walked to lead off the tenth, a Sammy Harris double to the gap in right center allowed the go-ahead run to score for Little Rock.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Panthers brought the winning run to the plate after a James Love leadoff walk, but the next three EIU at-bats resulted in outs as Little Rock held on for the 9-8 victory.

Eastern now moves to the loser's bracket, where they will play an elimination game this evening against either Lindenwood or SIUE. First pitch is currently scheduled for 7 p.m., but is subject to change.