Eastern won both games of a doubleheader against the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Cougars on Saturday at Coaches Stadium.
Game one came down to the wire. SIUE had the tying run in scoring position in the ninth inning before senior right-handed pitcher Jonathan Hanscom shut the door to complete a two-inning save, and the Panthers won 8-7.
Game two was a little more one-sided, as freshman right-handed pitcher Bryce Riggs gave up four runs in the first inning and then shut out the Cougars for the remainder of his outing.
Junior right-handed pitcher Lukas Touma came in and was lights out, striking out five in 2.2 innings while not allowing a single baserunner as the Panthers won that game 13-4.
The two wins were also historic for Eastern manager Jason Anderson, who won his 200th game as manager of Eastern Baseball. Anderson is just the fourth Panther manager of all time to accomplish such a feat, joining Jim Schmitz, Bill McCabe, and Tom McDevitt.
Anderson reflected after the second game on his overall feeling around the two wins today and the 200 wins in his managerial career.
“I’m just happy for this team,” Anderson said. “I had no idea I was at 200, literally none until we actually won the game, so that’s a pretty cool accomplishment but I’m just really happy for these guys to be back on track in the conference.”
Senior shortstop/outfielder Lucas Loos said that getting Anderson to this milestone is important to him and his teammates.
“It means a lot,” Loos said. “He puts in a lot of hard work being a coach and being able to get his 200th career win today, it’s something special for the team.”
Loos drove in four runs between both games on four sacrifice flies. Despite coming up with multiple runners on base on more than one occasion, hitting coach Mike Pugliese was thrilled with his approach today.
“Everything that he’s kinda brought to the table for us in the middle of the order has been huge,” Pugliese said. “If you asked him, he’s probably going to say that he didn’t have a great day today but me as a hitting coach, he didn’t try to do too much, shortened up, and got the job done. That’s the name of the game.”
Junior right-handed pitcher Casey Perrenoud got the start in game one, the spot in the rotation where senior right-handed pitcher Colton Coca has been for most of the year. Coca appeared out of the bullpen. Perrenoud was credited with the win in game one with Hanscom picking up his third save of the year. Riggs got the win in game two.
Eastern improves to 11-19 overall and 6-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play.
The Panthers will go for the series sweep of the Cougars on Sunday at Coaches Stadium, with the first pitch set for 1 p.m.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.
