Box Score
HAMMOND – Jonathan Pace's two-out hit broke open a tie game in the bottom of the fifth inning Saturday and Southeastern Louisiana held on to defeat Eastern Illinois, 4-3.
Harry Slade was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fifth and the game tied, 3-3. A wild pitch moved Slade to second and Pace followed with a hard smash down the third-base line allowing Slade to score easily for the lead.
Right-handers
Dylan Hills,
Jason Greenleaf and
Stefan Lopez shut down the Panther bats, allowing just one hit over the final four innings.
Southeastern (6-0) took the lead first with a single run in the bottom of the second inning. Pace and
Cody Gougler singled to open the second. Both players moved up on a sacrifice bunt by left fielder
Ladd Rhodes. With one out, catcher
Jacob Fisher, a Zachary native, plated Pace with a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Lions extended their lead to 3-0 with a pair of fourth-inning runs. Pace and Rhodes each reached on an error surrounding a Gougler fly out. With one out Fisher again delivered, singling into right field. Pace scored from second and Rhodes took third. Freshman
Brett Hoffman then laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Rhodes.
Eastern Illinois (1-3) tied the game with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Catcher Jacob Reese was hit by a pitch leading off the inning. Third baseman Brant Valach followed with a sacrifice bunt moving Reese to second, but starting pitcher
Jordan Hymel threw the ball away at first base allowing Reese to wind up at third.
With runners on the corners and no outs, Nick Priessman singled to right field to drive in Reese. A strong relay throw from relay man
Brock Hebert nailed Valach trying to reach third on the hit. With Caleb Howell at the plate, Priessman attempted to steal second and was thrown out by Fisher.
Howell followed with a two out single and, after Hymel walked second baseman Nathan Sopena and the Lions leading 3-1, head coach
Jay Artigues brought in Hills to pitch. The Panthers followed with back-to-back singles to tie the game.
Pace had two of the Lions' five hits in the game and Fisher drove in two of the four runs.
Hills picked up the win in relief, his third in seven days, and Lopez picked up his third save.
Southeastern, looking to extend its season-opening win streak to seven games, will send senior right-hander
Josh Janway (0-0, 5.40) to the mound Sunday for his first start of the season. He'll be opposed by freshman right-hander Andrew Grahn who will be making his collegiate debut for EIU.
A kid-friendly area will be setup at the game for Sunday in the Park, brought to you every Sunday home game by Academy Sports and Outdoors. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field. The game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and live statistics will be available at www.LionSports.net.
Southeastern La 4, Eastern Illinois 3 (Feb 25, 2012 at Hammond, La.)
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Eastern Illinois..….. 000 030 000 - 3 7 3 (1-3)
Southeastern La..... 010 210 000 - 4 5 1 (6-0)
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Pitchers: Eastern Illinois - Hoekstra, Mike; Worman, Darin(7) and Reese, Jacob.
Southeastern La - Hymel, Jordan; Hills, Dylan(5); Greenleaf, Jason(8); Lopez, Stefan(9) and Fisher, Jacob.
Win-Hills, Dylan(3-0) Save-Lopez, Stefan(3) Loss-Hoekstra, Mike(0-1) T-2:30 A-909
Weather: 56 Mostly Cloudy, N 10 mph
