EIU, SIUE Drop Losses in College Baseball

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Eastern Illinois held the lead twice on Thursday night before Tennessee Tech rallied for three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to post a 9-7 win over the Panthers. The two teams will resume the series on Friday night at 6 p.m.

EIU fell to 0-22, 0-10 in the OVC. TTU improved to 11-17, 5-8 in the OVC.

The Panthers jumped on top 4-0 in the second inning as the bottom of the order delivered. Marshawn Taylor and Adam Casson both drove home runs.  Catcher John Devito then moved both players into scoring position with a bunt. Joseph Duncan drove home Taylor and Casson scored on a wild pitch to stake EIU starter Garrison Stenger to the four run lead.

Tennessee Tech answered in their half of the second with four runs as Stenger struggled with control. Two Golden Eagles reached base on a hit-by-pitch and walk. Following a single to center Josh Pankratz and Tyler Brazelton connected for back-to-back two-run doubles.

EIU regained the lead in the fourth as they loaded the bases against TTU starter Chris Chism. Cale Hennemann and Caleb Howell delivered sacrifice flys for the two runs. Chism (5-1) worked seven innings for the win.

TTU tied the game in the fifth scoring one run on a sacrifice fly and another on a wild pitch. TTU took the lead in the bottom of the sixth against EIU reliever Christian Slazinik (0-4). Jordan Hopkins had the big hit in the inning with a two-run double.

EIU scored one run in the seventh on a Jason Scholl RBI single. Cain Sloan closed out the final two innings for TTU to pick up his first save.

Duncan was 3-for-5 for EIU and is hitting .545 as the Panthers lead-off hitter in the last five games. Howell and Scholl both added two hits for EIU. Teutopolis graduate Bobby Wenthe had one at-bat for Eastern but did not reach base.

Belmont 21, SIUE 10

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Following a one hour, 51 minute rain delay, it was Belmont's offense that continued to pour it on. The Bruins scored 21 times on 20 hits Thursday, defeating SIUE baseball 21-10 in the opener of a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series at Rose Park.

The Cougars have dropped three consecutive games and are now 9-14 overall and 9-4 in the OVC. Belmont improved to 15-11 overall and 7-2 in the OVC. The Bruins took over sole possession of first place with Thursday's win.

Friday's second game of the series has been moved up to a 12 noon start because of rain forecasted for later in the day.

Belmont has won three consecutive games and has scored a combined 72 runs in those games.

For SIUE Thursday marked the second consecutive game that the Cougars have allowed 20 or more runs in a game.

"We're pitching scared," SIUE Head Coach Tony Stoecklin said. "We're not attacking the strike zone. We're not attacking hitters. We're uncompetitive. We're not giving ourselves a chance to succeed."

Four pitchers pitched for SIUE in the loss. Ryan Daniels (2-4) started and allowed nine runs on 11 hits. Brendan Miller allowed five runs without recording an out in the fifth inning. Caleb Wilkerson allowed five runs in three innings. Mike Miller pitched an inning and allowed two runs. The Cougars' staff combined for eight walks and two hit batters.

"One guy feeds off the next guy," Stoecklin added. "They are all feeding off one another. It's going straight downhill."

After falling behind 3-0 after one inning, the Cougars used two hits, while taking advantage of a pair of Belmont errors, to score five times in the second inning and led 5-3. Denton Reed, Nick Lombardo, and Chase Green, Effingham High School graduate, had RBIs in the inning.