Sophomore pitcher Mike Hoekstra came in during Saturday’s nightcap of a doubleheader against Morehead State looking to get Eastern back on track after a tough 6-2 loss.

The Lansing native did just that in tossing a complete-game shutout on the league’s most potent offense, and thus gaining Ohio Valley Conference co-Pitcher of the Week honors.

The Eagles average 8.08 runs per game, but Hoekstra mowed them down in a 14-0 Eastern triumph.

“I just had to throw the ball down in the zone,” Hoekstra said. “I’ve got a good defense behind me and let them make plays for me. I didn’t have overpowering stuff today, only had two strikeouts, but I let them play with me.”

Hoekstra (3-1, 3.06 ERA) threw seven scoreless innings, giving up only three hits, striking out two and walking one. The 6′ 2″, 165 pound pitcher threw 74 pitches with 52 going for strikes.

There were seven fly ball outs tossed by Hoekstra with no RBIs or homers given up. Morehead State has 63 home runs.

“I was keeping them off-balance by throwing fastball in, changeup away,” Hoekstra said. “Off-speed was working well down in the zone. They tried to get under it, but they didn’t get enough of it.”

“I just had to think, keep the ball down in the zone and they couldn’t beat me.”

Sophomore catcher Gerik Wallsten was impressed with Hoekstra’s performance on the mound.

“‘Hoek’ usually hits his spots as he only had one walk in game two,” Wallsten said. “He was just mixing them pretty well with sliders and off-speed pitches, even getting his sliders over on righties and spotting up with his fastball. He is getting ahead, and when you get ahead in counts, you win almost 90 percent of the time with even good hitters.”

This is the first time Hoekstra has received the honor. Junior pitcher Mike Recchia (3-3, 4.94 ERA) was OVC Pitcher of the Week April 5 for throwing 7 1/3 innings of one-hit baseball to Austin Peay April 2.

Bringing out the bats

The Panthers hit five home runs this weekend, increasing their seasonal total to 20.

Sophomore third baseman Zach Borenstein went yard in game one Saturday against Eagle senior pitcher Michael Bottoms. Borenstein turned on a third inning pitch to rightfield to tie the game 2-2.

On Sunday, the Buffalo Grove native drilled Morehead State red-shirt sophomore Josh Schneider (6-3, 7.71 ERA) for a 9-5 Eastern lead. That blast was Borenstein’s team-leading sixth home run.

Also during Sunday’s competition, Wallsten drilled two homers while leading off the third and fifth innings. Both shots were off Eagle sophomore pitcher Tyler Hieneman.

“The key is what we did last year, going up by four runs in the last inning,” Schmitz said. “If we are only up by three with two on, one hit ties us up.”

The biggest dinger came off the bat of senior first baseman Alex Gee in the seventh inning. With senior rightfielder Curt Restko and Borenstein on first and second with two outs, Gee took the pitch passed left-centerfield to give Eastern the 7-4 lead. Gee teed off Morehead State sophomore Matthew Robertson (0-2, 10.30 ERA), who was tagged with the loss.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or rtbajek@eiu.edu.

Junior shortstop Cam Stang had four hits, two runs and one RBI during the weekend series against Morehead State at Coaches Stadium.(Audrey Sawyer/The Daily Eastern News)

(more…)