A constant drizzle fell on Coaches Stadium on Saturday afternoon causing nearly a two-hour delay in Eastern’s 19-2 win against Jacksonville State.

The Panthers jumped out to an early 12-2 lead after the first two innings, and dealt with several smaller delays to pour diamond dry on wet spots on home plate, on the mound, and near the bases.

The turning point in continuing the game at that point could have come when JSU freshman relief pitcher John David Smelser slipped and fell off the mound trying to field a bunt by Eastern sophomore left fielder Curt Restko. Smelser slipped on the bare patch of ground directly in front of the mound and came up with just dirty pants and no baseball.

The umpires called for the tarp after the first two innings took nearly an hour-and-a-half to complete, and the tarp remained on the field for nearly the next two hours.

Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said he had was concerned the umpires would cancel the game after they came out about an hour into the delay and would not allow the game to continue. Schmitz’s concern was to have the first game thrown out because only two innings had been completed.

“I just made one comment,” Schmitz said of his discussion with the umpires. “I just really wanted to get one game in. I just thought we had a chance. We can go out and put (diamond dry) down and we can probably make (the field) playable. The umpires were really nice and listened. If it kept raining we probably wouldn’t have had a chance.”

Eastern junior right fielder Ryan Lindquist said the Panthers stayed loose during the rain delay as they joked around to stay relaxed.

“We knew that we would wait out here all day to finish (Saturday’s) game,” Lindquist said.

Panthers make defensive gems in the field

Junior third baseman Jordan Kreke and senior first baseman Tristan Facer both made lunging snares of sharply hit line drives. But it was Lindquist who made the top two defensive plays of the games for the Panthers.

Lindquist made a diving grab over his left shoulder in the first inning on a blast by JSU junior second baseman Bert Smith.

“At first I really didn’t know if I was going to get (to the ball),” Lindquist said of his first-inning highlight. “I just deepened my angle up and really just laid out for it.”

Schmitz said Lindquist’s catch was phenomenal.

“That’s a double or triple off of Bert Smith, and they’ve got the big hitters up,” Schmitz said. “It all adds up. I keep trying to tell these guys one run or one big defensive play adds up to what really happened today, which is a fine effort on everybody’s part.”

Lindquist capped the game with a sliding catch in the top of the ninth on a ball of JSU freshman shortstop Jake Sharrock.

“Really I didn’t know if I was going to get that one either,” Lindquist said. “It was extremely low to the ground, and I’m just fortunate that it stayed up in the air a little bit to give me some time to get there.”

Morrell puts up strong relief performance

Eastern junior reliever Brian Morrell pitched seven innings of relief after the rain delay giving up no runs on three hits while striking out three.

Freshman Josh Mueller started for the Panthers but did not return after the near two-hour delay.

“Josh just had a long rain delay, so you can’t put him back in there,” Schmitz said. “He’s too valuable of a guy. (Morrell) saved our weekend.”

Morrell pitched five three-up, three-down innings against the Gamecocks and faced nine batters total in the other two innings.

“We were up 10 runs by the time I got in,” Morrell said. “My job was just to throw strikes. They’d already done all the work. I was really throwing fastball for strikes a lot times. I threw some sliders and curveballs, but really I threw a lot of fastballs and went after them and let them hit the ball and let the defense make the plays.”

Scott Richey can be reached at 581-7944 or at srrichey@eiu.edu.