WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Illinois 2, @Saint Louis 0
Evansville 11,
@SIUE 7
EASTERN ILLINOIS 2, SAINT LOUIS 0
ST. LOUIS - Eastern Illinois baseball (12-4, 0-0 OVC) win a defensive battle against the Billikens of Saint Louis (12-6, 0-0 A-10) by a final score of 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon. EIU's pitching staff allowed just two hits and zero walks in the game.
Starting pitcher Nick Laxner (W, 2-0) had his best outing of the season after throwing seven innings on Wednesday and allowing just two hits with five strikeouts in the shutout win. Grant Fremion (0-1) suffered the loss for Saint Louis. Marked the first shutout since April 19, 2022 vs. McKendree (9-0).
Lincoln Riley and Ryan Ignoffo were the lone Panthers to earn an RBI in the game. The Panther defense allowed just two base runners throughout the entire game. EIU has 10 shutouts wins in the last five seasons.
Ignoffo had the lone extra base hit in the first inning with a double, but was left stranded. Laxner pitched a three up three down first inning before allowing one of Saint Louis' two hits on the afternoon in the second. He would retire the next three.
After Saint Louis recorded their second and final hit of the game in the third, Laxner would putout the next 13 straight batters he faced including throwing four of his five strikeouts. EIU ended the game retiring 19 straight Billikens.
Eastern Illinois would finally break the 0-0 tie in the fifth inning after Fremion allowed two walks to Ja'Lil Akbar and Lucas DiLuca. Riley would get the job done with a single into left field to score Akabr and give EIU the one run lead.
In the top of the seventh inning with runners on the corners, Ignoffo delivered a sac fly into right field which would bring home DiLuca for the final run of the game. The Panthers' 2-0 win was the least amount of runs scored in a shutout win since 2019 (1-0 vs. SEMO).
Ignoffo would pick up where Laxner left off at on the mound in the eighth with a one, two, three inning to set up closer Zane Robbins for his first save of the season. With that save Robbins is now tied for sixth all-time in EIU history with 12 career saves.
Eastern Illinois would score two runs on seven hits with no errors. Saint Louis scored no runs on two hits with one error.
EVANSVILLE 11, SIUE 7
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Evansville built a 9-2 lead and held on for an 11-7 win over SIUE, dealing the Cougars their first home loss of the year Tuesday at Simmons Baseball Complex.
SIUE dropped to 13-6 while Evansville improved to 13-7.
The Purple Aces hit four home runs in the first four innings. UE third baseman Brent Widder's two-run homer capped a four-run third inning and catcher Brendan Hord hit a three-run home run to highlight a four-run fourth inning for the Aces. Hord hit a solo home run in the third as well.
Taylor Bruninga (1-1) started and worked into the third inning. He allowed four runs on four hits and struck out four.
SIUE scored twice in the third, picking up an RBI from Brady Bunten on a bases loaded walk. Bunten added a one-out solo home run in the fifth.
Josh Ohl picked up an RBI-single in the seventh inning to make it 9-4.
Evansville led 10-5 in the eighth when Kyle Ratliff connected for a two-run home run following a walk to Avery Owusu-Asiedu.
Bunten and Ratliff each finished 2-4. Ohl was 2-3.
Evansville outhit SIUE 10-8. Hord was 4-6 with four RBIs to lead the Aces at the plate. Widder was 2-5 with three RBIs.