Ohio Valley Conference

MARION, Ill. - Just 24 hours after pitching a shutdown 10th inning in Thursday's win over Eastern Illinois, junior Brody Bunting threw 121 pitches in a seven-inning gem to pick up the win Friday and put Little Rock into Saturday's OVC championship game with a 4-1 semifinal win over Lindenwood at Mountain Dew Park. The Trojans will face either Eastern Illinois or Lindenwood tomorrow at noon, needing just one win to claim the conference title. Their opponent will need to top Little Rock twice.
 
Bunting scattered five hits, allowed just one run and struck out six. Brenden Katz earned the save, throwing the final two hitless frames. Bunting and Katz are the latest heroes during Little Rock's historic run through the tournament, joining Jackson Wells and Zach Henry in the opener, Ty Rhoades and Cooper Chaplain in the win over SEMO, and then Ryan Geck and Sammy Harris in the extra-inning win a day ago.

Little Rock (23-32) opened the scoring in the first when Geck hit into a double play that allowed Alex Seguine to score. With Bunting holding Lindenwood (30-29) hitless for the first three innings, Martin delivered the biggest punch with a three-run bomb to left that made it 4-0 after three. Lindenwood's lone run would come in the fourth frame, but Bunting put the Lions down in order in the fifth and sixth, then worked around a jam in the seventh to strand a pair of runners.
 
Katz entered with a man on in the eighth and got the Lions to hit into an inning-ending double play, then forced Lindenwood into three consecutive ground ball outs in the ninth. Martin finished the game 3-for-3 at the plate and reached base in all four at-bats. Rhoades and Kade Goeke each had two hits and the Trojans struck out just four times.

#1 EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, #6 LINDENWOOD 1
MARION, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois baseball team (31-31, 17-7 OVC) won the OVC Tournament elimination bracket final with a 3-1 win over Lindenwood (30-30, 14-12 OVC) on Friday night. With the win, EIU advances to the championship round to face Little Rock on Saturday.

The headline for the Panthers was the man of the mound. Bryce Riggs was dominant in his fourth start of the season, allowing just one run on two hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts through the full nine innings.

It was the first complete game nine-inning performance for an EIU pitcher since the 2021 season (Ky Hampton vs. UT Martin).

Two Panthers had multi-hit performances, including Tyler Castro and Brett Stanley who both went 2-4. Meanwhile, Ethan Rossi and Zak Goodwin both recorded sacrifice RBIs.

Following a scoreless opening frame, Brett Stanley became the first base runner of the ballgame with a one-out single before a James Love walk put Panthers on first and second. A wild pitch allowed both runners to move up 90 feet before Ethan Rossi put EIU in the scoring column with a sacrifice fly.

With runners on first and second again in the third, what looked like a tailor-made double play ball resulted in a throwing error by the Lindenwood second baseman, which allowed Tyler Castro to score and extend the lead to a pair.

After Bryce Riggs finished off his fifth scoreless inning with his seventh strikeout of the evening, Zak Goodwin extended the EIU lead by another run in the bottom of the fifth with a sacrifice bunt that scored Tyler Castro, who had initially reached base on a leadoff single.

After Riggs continued to blank the Lions through the next two innings, he carried a no-hitter into the eighth before a Filip Sarota infield single broke-up the no-hit bid. Riggs was unfazed, though, and sat down the next three Lindenwood batters in order to preserve the 3-0 advantage.

The Lions would avoid the shutout with a Kam Edwards groundout RBI in the ninth that scored Tanner Simpson, who had reached on a leadoff double. However, that was the only run Lindenwood was able to scratch across, as a foul out in the next at-bat secured the win for Eastern.