Morehead State delivered a blow to the Panthers over the weekend at Coaches Stadium, taking two of three games in the weekend series to drop the Panthers to seventh in the Ohio Valley Conference standings.

In game one, Eastern turned to red-shirt senior Mike Hoekstra to limit the Eagles’ offensive attack. Hoekstra appeared to be on top of his game, but a pair of errors in the top of the fifth inning gave Morehead a lead they would never relinquish.

After falling behind 1-0 on a solo home run by Morehead’s Nick Duff, the Panthers responded for a three-run second inning that had them taking a two run advantage. Red-shirt senior Ben Thoma and freshman Caleb Howell got the Panthers on the board with a RBI single and a two-RBI double, respectively, to give Eastern a 3-1 lead.

In the fifth, Morehead scored three runs on three hits and two Panther errors to take a 4-3 advantage.

“We made some big mistakes defensively that cost us the game,” Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said. “Dineen made an error, Valach made an error and that’s what lost us the first game.”

The Eagles would continue to add to their lead in the following innings as they tallied a pair of insurance runs en route to picking up the 6-3 win.

Offensively, the Panthers were paced by sophomore Jacob Reese as he tallied three hits and scored a run. On the mound, Hoekstra took the loss, striking out eight, giving up 10 hits and five runs (two earned). It was Hoekstra’s first career loss to the Eagles.

In game two, the Eagles turned in a dominating performance en route to recording the 13-2 win. The Eagles were paced by 17 hits and five home runs as they roughed up the best pitching staff in the OVC for a season-high 13 runs.

The Eagles got on the board early as they tallied three runs in the first three innings of play before exploding for 10 runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

The Eagles were paced by home runs from Taylor Pickens, Eric Bainer and Drew Williams.

Andrew Deeds also belted a pair of home runs in the win.

Eastern was led by redshirt senior T.J. McManus and red-shirt senior Ben Thoma. McManus posted a two-for-four day with a RBI while Thoma was two-for-three with a solo home run.

On the mound, sophomore left-hander Christian Slazinik took the loss. Slazinik gave up six runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings of work. He also recorded three strikeouts and issued three walks while toeing the rubber.

In the series finale, the Panthers turned in one of their best offensive performance of the season as they scored 13 runs on a season-high 19 hits en route to picking up the 13-8 win.

“I think the key was we knew how important this win was,” Schmitz said. “We have to go 8-5 for the rest of the season to make the tournament. We are rededicating ourselves to the end of the year.”

The Panthers were paced by a pair of home runs as junior Nathan Sopena belted his first home run of his Panther career and red-shirt senior Ben Thoma smashed his team-leading eighth home run of the season.

“There was a lot of runs scored with the wind blowing out so all you had to do was get it up in the air,” Thoma said. “Honestly, I didn’t think I got enough of it (the ball) but I got it up real high and the wind just took it out.”

The Panthers had seven players record multi-hit games, and they also benefited off of six Morehead errors that had them taking a commanding 12-2 lead after four innings of play.

Freshman Caleb Howell, McManus, Thoma, red-shirt senior Dave Ciaglia, freshman Brant Valach, freshman Dane Sauer and Sopena each recorded two or more hits in the win.

The Panthers will be back in action with a mid-week match-up against in-state foe Western Illinois. First pith is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in Macomb on Tuesday.

Jordan Pottorff can be reached at 581-7942 or at jbpottorff@eiu.edu.