Eastern’s baseball team had their offense working this weekend, as they put up 48 runs over two seven-inning games, both victories, Sunday against Ohio Valley Conference opponent Morehead State, 25-8 and 23-6, respectively.

The scheduled series in Morehead, Ky., was affected by rain this weekend as Saturday’s scheduled double header was cancel ed and Sunday’s single game was replaced by the pair of seven-inning contests.

When the series finally started, the Panther bats made up for lost time, scoring 25 runs in game one alone, including nine Panther long-balls in the first game, including three by junior leadoff hitter Zach Borenstein.

A nine-run outburst in the third inning and an eight-run rally in the sixth keyed the Panther victory in game one as the bats were going throughout the contest.

In addition to Borenstein’s trio of blasts, red-shirt junior Ben Thoma had a pair of home runs and sophomore third-baseman Ryan Dineen, red-shirt junior first-baseman T.J. McManus senior outfielder Shawn Ferguson, and red-shirt senior designated hitter Jake Samuels notched one homer each.

Red-shirt junior pitcher Mike Hoekstra went five innings for his team-leading fourth win of the season, allowing seven runs on 10 hits, walking two and striking out none.

In the second game Eastern started right where they had left off, plating 16 more runs in the first three innings to leave Morehead State wondering just what they had to do to stop a Panther offense that was shut out last week by cross-state rival Western Illinois.

The Panthers ended up scoring 23 runs in game two, only this time without the benefit of a home run after hitting nine of them in game one. The Panthers scored at least one run in every inning of game two except the fifth as their offense remained consistent throughout the contest.

Meanwhile, freshman right-handed pitcher Luke Bushur only allowed one run on four eagle hits over his five innings of work while walking one and striking out five. Senior right-handed pitcher Matt Miller then came into the game and allowed five runs on six hits and two walks over the final two innings while striking out two.

The wins put the Panthers as 5-3 on the season in OVC play, which leaves them tied with Austin Peay for second in the conference and only a half-game behind Jacksonville State for first place.

The Panthers’ next action will be Tuesday night as they take on the University of Illinois at Peterson Park in Mattoon at 6 p.m. before hosting Illinois College at Coaches’ Stadium Wednesday afternoon, with first pitch of that game set for 3 p.m.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu

Daniel Rowe, sophomore infielder, throws the ball to first during the game against Southern Illinois University-Carbondale March 23 at Coaches Stadium. The Panthers won both games against Morehead State Sunday. (Audrey Sawyer

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