Salukis hand Panthers Baseball Loss

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois baseball team had few troubles working runners into scoring position against Southern Illinois, but the Panthers were unsuccessful in driving home runs in those opportunities. The Salukis made the most of their scoring chances and earned a 10-2 victory on Tuesday night in a non-conference matchup. The Panthers return to Ohio Valley Conference play with a three-game series this weekend at Southeast Missouri.

With the loss, Eastern Illinois drops to 5-27 on the year. Southern Illinois earned their 20th win on the season and improves to 20-13 overall.

After working a pair of scoreless innings, Eastern Illinois starter Chase Thurston ran into his first sign of trouble in the bottom of the third inning. Four-straight Southern Illinois hits to open the inning accounted for three runs. The Salukis added another run later on the inning on a sacrifice fly by Greg Lambert to give Southern Illinois a 4-0 lead. Southern Illinois looked to keep the rally going in the inning as they loaded the bases against Thurston, but Jake Johansmeier came on to record the final out of the inning.

Southern Illinois looked to play small-ball with runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. Will Farmer laid down a sacrifice bunt, but a Panthers’ error allowed Farmer to reach first and brought home a run. The Salukis extended their lead to 6-0 on the next play on a Connor Kopach sacrifice fly.

The Panthers had several opportunities to cut into the Salukis’ lead having a runner in scoring position in each of the innings between the second and sixth frames. Cale Hennemann reached second base with a pair of doubles in the second and fourth innings. The Panthers finally broke through in the top of the seventh inning against the Southern Illinois pitching staff. With one out in the inning, Tyler Tesmond and Nick Maton worked back-to-back walks. A single by Joseph Duncan loaded the bases for EIU. Dane Toppel smoked a ball to the Salukis’ shortstop, but Southern Illinois was unable to complete the double play and a throwing error on the play allowed a second run to come across of EIU and cut the SIU lead to 6-2.

Southern Illinois began to put the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh inning. With runners on second and third a groundball was hit to shortstop, but the SIU runner coming from second ran into Maton and prevented a run from scoring while being called out on the play. The Salukis kept the pressure on the EIU pitching staff however, scoring the final four runs of the game on their way to a 10-2 win.

Thurston (0-3) took the loss for EIU giving up four runs in 2.2 innings on the mound. Hunter Clark tossed 1.1 innings of scoreless relief for the Panthers.

Duncan and Hennemann accounted for six of the Panthers’ nine hits in the game. Hennemann finished 3-for-4 with two doubles and Duncan went 3-for-5 with a double.