Top of the seventh inning tied at four, with runners in scoring position, the Panthers make the call to the bullpen and call upon junior Michael Starcevich. Robert Morris’ Donte Richie makes contact and drove the ball out to the left-center wall. Junior Joe Duncan followed the ball to the wall and jumped and caught the ball and rolled over to have the ball pop out but get back into his glove.

“At first I was like ‘Oh man, that balls hit deep,’ I kind have just ran, I didn’t really know where the wall was at. It took me off guard and that’s when I bobbled it,” Duncan said. “That was a big momentum shift and that’s what we needed.”

This potentially saved two runs from coming in to score to have the Panthers down. On the other end, it sparked the Panthers bats to come alive and changed the momentum for the rest of the game. Coach Jason Anderson said that Duncan’s play was the game changer.

“After he made that catch, it turned things around,” Anderson said. “It got it going. The tempo of the game was way too slow. Just nothing was going our way. Everything they hit was falling, (RMU) weren’t really hitting power shots but they were falling every which way and I think it turned it around.”

Duncan, coming off that catch, would start the bottom of the seventh with an infield single to get on. Duncan would move over to second on a sacrifice from sophomore Jimmy Govern. Then junior Logan Beaman walked and after that, the Eagles put into a new pitcher who threw a wild pitch to advance the runners into scoring position. That same pitcher, Dalton Miller, balked to have Duncan score. Junior Matt Albert would knock in a run with an RBI single. Two failed pickoff attempts later, the Panthers would end up with an 8-4 lead.

“It was good to have. These games are kind of tough because all the pressures all on us and I think we came out a little bit slow but we got together and that’s what we need to do with these teams,” Duncan said.

Starcevich would finish in a perfect 1.1 innings and only facing four batters in 21 pitches. He notched his first win after coming in against Murray State and getting the save in game three. Anderson said Starcevich brings a calm to the team.

“He’s going to throw strikes and he’s going to get outs and compete out there. He did that again today,” Anderson said. “(He) allowed our offense a chance to comeback and they did. It turned out to be a pretty good game for us.”

Adding to the lead, the bases were loaded and junior Dougie Parks was up. Parks would hit one out of the park in center and had a game-high five RBIs.

“I was trying to hit homeruns,” Parks said. “Coach told me to step to the middle a little more. My last at bat it worked out well for me.”

Tyler McCluskey can be reached at 581-2812 or at trmccluskey@eiu.edu