EIU Outlasts Illinois State in Baseball Action

CHARLESTON – Jimmy Huber homered twice in the first inning as Eastern Illinois jumped out to a 9-0 lead on a windy Wednesday afternoon at Coaches Stadium.  Just under three and a half hours and 10 combined home runs later, EIU held on for a 17-13 win over Illinois State.

The Panthers improved to 13-22 overall while the Redbirds fell to 14-19.

Huber led off the game with a home run to center field.  He would homer again in the first inning, this time driving in Tyler Tesmond as the Panthers batted around.   In the inning Jimmy Govern drove home two runs with a single, Tesmond drove home a pair with a single and Ryan Knernschield added a solo homer.

Carson Haws was effective enough on the mound for EIU as he allowed six earned runs in 6.2 innings of work to improve to 2-4 on the season.  Jack Spicer recorded just one out for ISU as he fell to 1-1 with the loss.

After ISU scored a run in the top of the second, Matt Albert drove home a run for the Panthers in the bottom of the frame.  Albert added a two-run homer in the fourth as he finished the day with three RBI, one of five Panthers with multiple RBI in the game.

The Redbirds chipped away at the lead with three runs in the third and three runs in the fifth.  Owen Miller had an RBI double in the third while Joe Aeilts belted a two run homer.  Joe Butler had a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the sixth that cut the EIU lead to 12-9.

Hunter Morris gave the Panthers a little breathing room in the bottom of the sixth with the first of his two home runs in the game, a two-run shot to center.  Morris added a three-run home run in the eighth as he was 4-of-5 with six RBI in the game.  Morris three run shot in the eighth came after ISU had made it 14-12 with three runs in the top of the eighth.  John Rave had a three-run home run for the Redbirds to cut the lead to two.

In the ninth, ISU scored one run on a wild pitch with based loaded and Michael Starcevich struck out the final batter with runners at second and third.

Huber was 3-for-6 while Albert went 3-for-3 for the Panthers.

Noah Sadler and Nick Zouras had two hits each for ISU as the Redbirds finished the game with nine hits.