After a promising start to the series with an 11th-inning walk-off victory, the Eastern baseball team failed to come out on top for the rest of the weekend.

The Panthers had a thrilling first game against Morehead State as redshirt senior right fielder Frankie Perrone blasted a home run in the bottom of the 11th, putting the score at 9-8 and giving the Panthers their 16th win of the year.

As for the next two days, Morehead State dominated offensively as it put on a hitting clinic Saturday, winning 24-11 on 23 hits. Prior to the eighth inning, Morehead was up 9-7 before the team caught fire and scored 12 runs, none of which run was scored by a home run.

On that day, there were nine different players on the roster with an RBI, including five-RBI performances from junior first baseman Trevor Snyder and senior third baseman Eli Boggess.

During Sunday’s game, the offense quickly toned down for Morehead State, but still provided enough run support to win 7-5. Once the Panthers scored their five runs in the opening innings, they were shut down after by sophomore Dom Masullo and redshirt freshman Cory Conway.

“Morehead State is a good team, and two of the three games we were right there with them and playing good baseball,” senior closer Michael Starcevich said.

Over the weekend, senior third baseman Dougie Parks had himself a series that he will not soon forget. In each game this series, Parks hit a home run in each game, bringing his season total to a team leading 12 homers, as well as leading the team with 14 doubles.

Continuing with the home runs, redshirt junior Hunter Morris launched a pair of his own over the weekend. In the first and third game, Morris brought his home run total to 11 and added to his team leading 44 RBIs.

Pitching-wise, the Panthers had a rough weekend as they allowed 39 runs to cross the plate. However, in the first game of the series, junior starting pitcher Tyler Jones continued to pitch well as he threw 7.2 innings, allowing four runs to cross but all unearned and lowering his team-leading ERA to 2.65 in 51 innings pitched. 

Starcevich had a rough outing for Friday’s game, allowing three runs to cross the plate in 3.1 innings. After Starcevich allowed those three runs in the ninth inning, he settled down the next two innings.

“Friday, I couldn’t find the strike zone in the ninth with my fastball and it’s hard to be successful without command of the fastball,” Starcevich said.

Starcevich had found his rhythm by the third game as now runs scored on him, putting his 2.85 ERA at second lowest on the team.

“I didn’t really make any changes; the 10th and 11th I was fine on Friday, and so I just took that momentum into Sunday,” Starcevich said.

The Panthers will have the week off as they do not have a game until their away series against Tennessee-Martin starting Friday.

Adam Shay can be reached at 581-2812 or acshay@eiu.edu