Eastern drops doubleheader to Eagles
April 18, 2019
In what has been the trend for the Eastern baseball team this season, the offense was able to put up big numbers, while the pitching also gave up big numbers to the opponent.
Eastern lost both games of a road doubleheader to conference-foe Morehead State Thursday, losing the first game 11-8 and the second game 10-8.
Eastern (18-21, 9-11) and Morehead State (26-14, 11-6) were originally scheduled to only play one game Thursday but ended up playing a doubleheader.
The Panthers combined to score 16 runs in both games Thursday, but they also gave up a combined total of 21 runs to Morehead State.
The flow of each game was different as well, as Eastern trailed for the majority of the first game and gave up a lead in the second game.
Eastern trailed 4-1 in the fifth inning of the first contest, before tying the game 4-4 with a three-run seventh inning.
Both teams had their own big innings to close out the game, but Eastern’s was not enough to come back after the fifth-inning tied score.
Morehead State scored its final seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, capped off by a three-run home run.
Eastern nearly pulled off the big comeback, scoring its final four runs all in the ninth inning.
Jimmy Govern started the ninth-inning scoring with one of his two solo home runs in the game, making the score 11-5 in Morehead State’s favor.
Ryan Knernschield brought in Eastern’s sixth run, grounding out to third base, but still scoring Hunter Morris.
Keith Kerrigan and Trey Sweeney brought in the last two runs, both singling to right field to do so.
The second game went a little better for Eastern, though, as the Panthers had an early 4-4 tie through three innings, but three innings later in the sixth, they trailed by one run, 8-7.
Morris started Eastern’s scoring in the first inning with a two-run home run. Knernschield also brought in a run in the fashion of a sacrifice fly out, which scored Christian Pena.
But, Morehead State matched Eastern every time the Panthers scored.
After the 4-4 tie, Eastern scored three runs in the fifth inning, but the Eagles scored four in the bottom half of the fifth.
In the eighth inning, Tyler Tesmond scored Trey Sweeney to tie the game up at 8-8, but a home run in the bottom half of the eighth inning put the Eagles back up 10-8, which held up for the Morehead State win.
A variety of Panthers provided the big bats for Eastern at the plate in each game.
In the first game, Govern drove two solo home runs over the fence in left field, finishing with two RBIs as well.
Christian Pena went 4-for-4 in the first game with an RBI, and Ryan Knernschield and Keith Kerrigan each had two RBIs too.
In the second game, Morris went 4-for-5 with four RBIs and Pena went 3-for-5 with two RBIs.
Eastern and Morehead State will close out the series Friday, with a game scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
Dillan Schorfheide can be reached at 581-2812 or dtschorfheide@eiu.edu