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MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State baseball team outscored Eastern Illinois 9-3 in the final seven innings Saturday, but the Panthers had already done their damage early as they plated eight runs in the opening two frames and held on to defeat the Eagles 11-9 at Allen Field.
Eastern Illinois evened the weekend series at a game apiece and improved to 11-30 overall and 7-16 in the Ohio Valley Conference. MSU, which saw a 12-game home winning streak snapped, slipped to 29-18 overall and 14-9 in the league.
"We did not get a good start on the mound," Head Coach Mike McGuire said. "We did some good things after that, and I thought our pitching in the final seven innings was pretty solid. Offensively, we were able to get our bats going, but we punched out too many times, and did not get quality at-bats in a few key situations that could have changed the outcome."
EIU leftfielder Demetre Taylor drove in half of the Panthers' early runs with a double in the first and a three-run homer in the second. Designated hitter Bobby Wenthe added a two-run round-tripper in the first.
Morehead State nearly completed an eight-run rally with five runs in the third and solo tallies in the second and fifth to trail 8-7, but the visitors stretched their lead back to 11-7 in the seventh.
Senior designated hitter Clayton Meyer highlighted the five-run outburst with a bases-clearing double. Meyer was 3-for-5 with a career-high six RBI and also added a solo home run in the ninth. The St. Peters, Mo., native has 11 hits and 12 RBI in his last four games.
Third baseman Cale Henneman and second baseman Mitch Gasbarro tallied three hits each as the Panthers clubbed 17 hits off three Eagle hurlers.
Besides Meyer, senior shortstop Robby Spencer, who had two doubles, and sophomore center field Ryan Kent notched three hits for MSU. Kent extended his team-best reached-base streak to 26 games. Senior first baseman Kane Sweeney collected a single to up his reached-base streak to 24 contests.
Matt Wivinis allowed 14 hits and eight runs in a seven-inning outing but was still credited with his second victory of 2015. Chase Thurston allowed only the Meyer long ball in the last two innings. He struck out the final two batters with the tying runs on base.
MSU starter Craig Pearcy surrendered eight runs in just 1.1 innings and fell to 2-4. Freshman righty Brent Stoneking and sophomore lefty Cable Wright closed the game. Wright, who needs only two more appearances to tie the MSU single-season record of 29, did not allow a run and just three hits in the final three frames.
The rubber match of the series is set for 1 p.m. ET Sunday. It will be shown live on the OVC Digital Network.
