Baseball Travels To SIUE For Pivotal Conference Clash

Panthers are currently 1.5 games back of the Cougars for first-place in the OVC

5/7/2025 11:43:00 AM

Eastern Illinois (24-18, 12-6 OVC) at SIUE (23-22, 15-6 OVC)
May 9-11 | Edwardsville, Ill. | Simmons Baseball Complex

Game 1: Fri., May 9 at 6 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats
Game 2: Sat., May 10 at 2 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats
Game 3: Sun., May 11 at 1 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats

LEADING OFF: With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Eastern Illinois baseball team travels to Edwardsville this weekend for a pivotal OVC series against SIUE. The Cougars currently sit atop the conference standings, with the Panthers not far behind in third place.

SERIES HISTORY: In a series dating back to 1973, EIU is 45-51 all-time against SIUE with a 16-19 mark since the Cougars joined the OVC in 2011. Eastern took two of three against SIUE in Charleston last season before suffering an 8-6 loss to the Cougars in the OVC Tournament.

SIUE:

SIUE is currently 23-22 overall with a 15-6 record in conference play. They won two out of three against Western Illinois last weekend and have a midweek game against Southern Illinois on Wednesday evening.
The Cougars are batting .266 as a team this season and lead the OVC in home runs (65) and slugging percentage (.455).
Daniel Grier leads the team in batting average (.329) and stolen bases (19), while Mack Mitchell leads the conference in home runs (17) and slugging percentage (.684).
SIUE has a team ERA of 6.54 with a .267 batting average against, which is third best in the OVC. Their 382 strikeouts are second most in the conference.
Tim Teixeira is fifth in the OVC with 54 strikeouts and holds a 3-3 record in team-high 12 starts. Tyler Davis is third in the conference with six saves. He has 32 strikeouts in 20.2 innings pitched with a .178 batting average allowed.
The Cougars are led by ninth-year head coach Sean Lyons, who played at Eastern Illinois from 1996-1999. He was selected as one of Eastern Illinois' 20 greatest OVC athletes during the Panthers' celebration of their first 20 years in the OVC.

LAST TIME OUT: A gem from starting pitcher Anthony Solis led EIU to a 6-3 win over Little Rock on Friday. Solis improved his record to 5-2 on the season after surrendering just one run on six hits with a pair of strikeouts through the game's first seven innings.

At the plate, Chris Worcester led the way going 2-3 with two doubles and a pair of RBIs. It was his team-high 17th multi-hit game of the season. Brett Stanley and Jake Ottensmeier also had multi-hit performances with 2-4 outings.

The series' remaining two games were canceled due to inclement weather.

CONFERENCE STANDINGS: Eastern is currently third in the OVC standings and a game and a half back of first-place with a record of 12-6. SIUE is first with a 15-6 record, while Tennessee Tech is currently second at 14-7. Following EIU are SEMO (13-8) in fourth and Lindenwood (12-8) in fifth. Southern Indiana (10-11), UT Martin (9-11), and Little Rock (7-11) round out the top eight, followed by Western Illinois (7-14) and Morehead State (2-19).

QUICK HITTERS:

The Panthers are batting .284 as a team this season with a conference best .403 on-base percentage. Eastern leads the league in runs scored (336), batters hit by pitch (75), and sacrifice bunts (60), which is also the most nationally. They are second in the conference in RBIs (300).

Seven EIU players are batting over .300 on the season, led by Zak Goodwin with an average of .343. Goodwin also leads the team in on-base percentage (.504) and has reached base in a team-high 20 consecutive games.

Mike O'Conor is batting .325 while leading the team in home runs (9) and RBIs (33). O'Conor also leads EIU with nine multi-RBI games and his .619 slugging percentage is fourth best in the OVC.

Chris Worcester leads the team in hits (53) and doubles (12) with a team-high 17 multi-hit performances.

Ethan Rossi is batting .293 overall with a team-best .377 average in conference play, which is third in the OVC. He leads the conference in sacrifice bunts (12) and is second on the team with five home runs.

Brett Stanley leads EIU with 22 stolen bases on 24 attempts, which is second most in the OVC. He has reached base in 15 consecutive games.

EIU has a 5.03 ERA, which is second best in the OVC. They have allowed the fewest earned runs (208) and second fewest hits (400) in the league.

Bryce Riggs has a team-best 2.04 ERA. He is 2-0 in his last two appearances with just one run allowed on three hits with seven strikeouts through 7.2 innings pitched.

Tyler Kapraun is 4-4 with an ERA of 4.53, which is eighth best in the OVC. His team-leading 50 strikeouts is tied for seventh most in the conference.

CATEGORY LEADERS:
Hits – Chris Worcester (53), Brett Stanley (44), Ethan Rossi (39)
Home Runs – Mike O'Conor (9), Ethan Rossi (5), Eli Hill (3)
RBI – Mike O'Conor (33), Tyler Castro (29), Jake Ferguson/Brett Stanley (27)
Strikeouts – Tyler Kapraun (50), Tyler Conklin (36), Dalton Boruff (34)
Wins – Anthony Solis (5), Christian Carew/Tyler Kapraun (4), Eli Cartwright/Tyler Conklin (3)

ON DECK: Eastern travels to Bloomington next Tuesday for a midweek matchup against Illinois State at 5 p.m. before hosting Western Illinois the following weekend to wrap up the regular season.

Print Friendly Version