Eastern broke out of their recent offensive woes by pushing 10 runs across the plate against Saint Louis, but the Panthers pitching couldn’t hold two early leads and dropped a high scoring road affair to the Billikens 19-10.

The game started well for the Panthers with two runs in the first inning off Saint Louis starter Kurt Struckhoff. But Eastern starter Mike Manns, who was making his first collegiate start, quickly gave the Billikens two runs in the bottom of the first to knot the score.

Eastern scored one run in the top of the second to briefly take the lead before the Billikens pounded Manns in their half of the second to the tune of eight runs. All the tallies came with two outs and started when shortstop Pat Steinhoff drove in a run with a double down the left field line. Designated hitter Scott Peden had the frame’s big blow with a three run homer to left and left fielder Jon Greenwich followed with a bomb of his own. Senior Drew Eder kept the scoring going with a two-run double to left center. Right fielder Mark Hankes closed out the inning with a double to right to give the Billikens a 10-3 lead.

“You can’t give a team 10 runs in two innings,” Panthers head coach Jimmy Schmitz said. “Mike Manns just did not have a curveball today and they sat on his fastball.”

Eastern cut the lead to 10-6 with three runs on four hits in the fourth, but Billiken senior Kyle Wort went deep to get one of the runs back. The Panthers made a nice two-out rally of their own in the fifth when the blue and white hit Saint Louis reliever Adam Schroeder for four runs to close the lead to 11-10. David Chacon, spelling Marcus Jackson in center field, launched a two-run blast to chase Schroeder from the mound. Senior Kris Weber came into the ballgame to record the final out.

“We came back and fought but it’s tough to overcome that big of a deficit,” Schmitz said.

Eastern failed to score in the final four innings and managed just four hits as Saint Louis relievers Weber and Wort held the Panthers at bay. The Billikens would plate eight more runs off relievers Alex Chapple, Brian Long and Mike Bouchez to turn a close game into a 19-10 blowout.

Greenwich led the late inning charge with two more home runs to tie a Billiken record. The freshman’s seven total RBI also tied the school’s record.

“One hitter had three home runs and that can’t happen,” Schmitz said.

Schroeder picked up the win for Saint Louis (8-16) despite giving up seven runs in three innings to improve his record to 2-2 on the season. Manns took the loss in his first decision after going two innings and surrendering seven hits and 10 runs.

After the game, Schmitz was disappointed with the loss but pointed out the bright spots of the offense and the relief pitching of Brian Long.

“David Chacon had a couple of hits and three RBIs and Paul Dean had two RBIs,” Schmitz said. “We also scored four runs in the fifth with wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour.

“Brian Long went out there and pitched two perfect innings for us out of the bullpen.”

Pitcher Erik Huber saw action at the designated hitter spot replacing the struggling duo of Mike Gavin and Paul Dean. Schmitz said after Huber’s two-hit performance the freshman will remain at the DH spot for today’s contest against Chicago State. Huber is now 9-16 at the plate and is batting .563.

Eastern (3-17) will get a big boost on the mound when senior ace Jared Marshall makes his first start of the season against Chicago State. Marshall had been out the entire year after undergoing off-season surgery.

“We’re going to go with Jared Marshall,” Schmitz said. “He’ll go a couple innings to see where he’s at.”

The game against Chicago State (1-21) will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Coaches Stadium.