EIU 5 Southeast 1 - Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. –The Southeast Missouri baseball team dropped their series opener with Eastern Illinois 5-1 in Southeast's first road Ohio Valley Conference game of the season. The two teams waited for over an hour to start the game as rain and hail hit the greater Charleston area.

 EIU starter Mike Hoekstra was brilliant for the Panthers going 8.1 innings allowing an earned run on five hits with eight strikeouts.

“Hoekstra threw well today, I tip my cap to him,” said head coach Mark Hogan. “He was very crafty and had great control.”

Southeast drops to 7-20 overall and 0-4 in the OVC as the Panthers improve to 10-13 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

The Panthers opened up the scoring with a run in the first inning. They added another run in the second inning with a Ben Thoma home run to left centerfield as the Panthers extended their  advantage to 2-0.

EIU used four hits to score two runs in the sixth inning to jump out to a 4-0 lead. The Panthers would also hit another home run in the contest as Ryan Dineen powered one out to right field putting EIU up 5-0.

Hoekstra retired 15 Redhawks in a row after a pair of singles to open up the contest. Outfielder Cole Bieser reached on an error to end the streak of retired batters in the sixth inning.

Hoekstra would then retire five more batters until sophomore Derek Gibson extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a leadoff single in the top of the eighth, but Southeast stranded Gibson in the frame.

Southeast added their only tally in the top of the ninth inning on an RBI single from Kody Campbell that scored Kenton Parmley, who opened up the inning with a hit-by-pitch.

The Campbell single put two runners on base for Southeast, but Keith Koser shut the door on the Redhawks with his third save of the season as Southeast fell, 5-1.

Parmley extended his hitting streak to 34 games and is now one game short of Kerry Robinson record of 35 games set in 1995. He also extended his reaching base safely streak to 43 games.

Moses extended his reaching base safely streak to 47 games with a single in his final at bat. He also continued his hitting streak as it now stands at 18 games.

Jesse Tierney returned to the starting lineup for Southeast and added a hit in the contest.

Sophomore Christian Hull (2-4) was tagged with the loss going six innings allowing four earned runs on 11 hits. Michael Patman threw a scoreless inning of relief out of the Redhawk bullpen.

Dineen paced the Panthers offensively going 4-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI. Nathan Sopena added a pair of hits for EIU.

The Redhawks and Panthers are back in action tomorrow at 1:00 p.m., CT. Junior Shae Simmons gets the start opposing lefthander Christian Slaznik.