Heading to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Eastern baseball team trailing 7-6, red-shirt sophomore Demetre Taylor was looking to play the role of a hero for the Panthers.

With two Panthers on base and two outs, Taylor hit a line drive over the Saint Louis left fielder’s head and into the corner, which drove in Mitch Gasbarro and Jacob Reese, giving the Panthers their first lead of the game at 8-7.

The Panthers would add an insurance run later in the inning, when Jason Scholl hit a single to the right side, driving in Taylor to give Eastern a 9-7 lead.

Eastern won its second straight game in Coaches Stadium and improved to 7-17 overall, while the Billikens saw their five-game winning streak come to a close as they dropped to 14-9.

Troy Barton came into the game in the top of the ninth inning to close it out for the Panthers.

He allowed a single to Billikens’ catcher Colton Frabasilio, struck out Danny Brennan and then forced Drew Curtis to ground into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Taylor, who ended the game 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, said heading into the final at bat his mindset was simple.

Eastern coach Jim Schmitz said Taylor is starting to become accustom to being up at the plate in RBI situations.

“He is young to the game of baseball,” Schmitz said. “He is starting to really like that role and starting to do well in it. It is nice to have a guy that likes to knock in runs.”

Before the comeback, the Panthers trailed 6-0, entering the bottom of the third inning.

The Billikens batted around in the second and third innings, as they went ahead by six.

In the third inning with the bases loaded, Eastern pitcher Christian Slasinik walked Drew Curtis and then hit Danny Mannion in the back with a fastball, adding two more runs for the Billikens, giving them a 6-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third, the Panthers would add three runs of their own, one of which came off a Cameron Berra RBI-groundout.

Eastern outscored Saint Louis 9-1 in the final six innings.

Schmitz said the comeback win happened because the Panthers have been used to being behind in games this season.

“We seem to have a pretty good approach at trying to get runs,” he said. “They don’t just give in runs and go up there and go up there and hack away. I don’t think any team quits, but their approach to the game late in the game is to get back in it and they know how to do that, so I was really happy with that.”

Joe Greenfield earned the win for the Panthers, pitching one inning and only allowing one hit in relief. Greenfield improved his record to 3-1 on the season.

Zach Girrens earned the loss with allowing three runs in one inning of work and fell to 0-2 on the season.

The Panthers will be back at home on Friday, when they host Jacksonville State for a three-game weekend series.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu.