A pair of round-best efforts propelled the Eastern men’s golf team to fifth place out of 16 teams at the Western Illinois Invitational at Harry Mussato Golf Course in Macomb Tuesday.

Junior Gino Parrodi shot a tournament-best 6-under-par in the first round of play on the cold and windy day.

Parrodi was modest about his tournament-best round, but junior David Lawrence was giddy in describing Parrodi’s accomplishment.

“His round was out of this world,” Lawrence said. “A 66 on that course, in those conditions, I mean the wind chill was below freezing. For him to go out and put up a 66 is unreal.”

Lawrence was no stranger to exemplary rounds at the invitational.

After shooting an 84, 12-over-par, on the first day, Lawrence improved his score a full 14 strokes to earn the best round honors with a 70, 2-under-par.

While Lawrence was shaving 14 strokes off his first round results, Parrodi was adding strokes on to his score.

Parrodi shot an 80, 8-over-par, in round two, dropping his overall score from first to a tie for fourth with Oakland sophomore Phil Gieseker.

Lawrence said the pair was out of rhythm..

“It’s just that inconsistency that comes with not playing a lot of tournament golf,” Lawrence said. “By the time conference comes around I think we will be ready to play three solid rounds and be in contention.”

The Panthers shot a 606, 30-over-par, which earned them their first top-five finish in a tournament with as many teams all year.

They were just five strokes off of the third place finishers, Wisconsin-Green Bay, who beat the Panthers two weeks ago in the Bulldog Florida Invitational by 10 strokes.

Western Illinois, which owns and operates the course the tournament was played on, fielded two teams in the tournament, one named Purple and the other Gold.

Eastern finished 13 strokes from the Purple team, which finished in first place. The Gold team finished 12th.

Lawrence said he felt the tournament was a good sign for the team moving forward in the season.

“Everyone finished strong, played hard until the end,” said Lawrence. “It’s nice to see us moving in the right direction, moving up the leader boards.”

Doug T. Graham is can be reached at 581-7944 or dtgraham@eiu.edu