Eastern’s baseball team was outscored 27-19 in three games against Southeast Missouri State University in Ohio Valley Conference play Friday and Saturday at Cape Girardeau, Mo., but managed to return to Charleston with two wins.

The Panthers’ (17-19, 4-5) pitching staff held the Indians (19-13, 4-4) to five runs in the two games of the Friday doubleheader, but the Indians battered the Panthers pitching Saturday, smashing five home runs and scoring 22 runs.

SEMO scored 10 of the 22 runs in the first inning of the final game of the series. The Indians chased two Eastern pitchers out of the game before recording a single out. Junior Jared Marshall gave up five runs off five hits before junior Andy Kuntz relieved him. Kuntz walked two of the three batters he faced and left with the bases loaded and no outs. Senior Matt Tyson came in and allowed all three inherited runners to score, crediting Kuntz with three unearned runs.

Tyson stayed in the game for two more innings after getting the Panthers out of the first inning, but didn’t slow the Indians’ offense. Tyson left the game after giving up a home run to the second batter he faced in the fourth inning making the score 14-4.

The Panthers would fall to as many as 15 runs behind. The closest the Panthers would come for the rest of the day would be trailing by 10 runs after the top of the eighth inning.

The Panthers liked Friday’s results much better. The first game of the series matched up the top ranked pitchers in the OVC, Eastern senior Damon White against SEMO’s Tim Alvarez. Alvarez came into the game leading the OVC in ERA with White trailing him in second place. But it would be White who would out do Alvarez in the head-to-head match up.

White pitched a complete game in the first game of the series pitching nine innings of five-hit, one-run baseball for his third win of the season. Alvarez matched White’s nine innings of work, but gave up five earned runs.

Alvarez was unhittable in the first five innings of the game. While Eastern was struggling to find a way to get a hit, SEMO gave Alvarez just one run of support off a home run by designated hitter David Lawson in the fifth.

Eastern senior left fielder Danny Jordan got the Panthers’ first hit and runs of the game in the sixth inning. He advanced to second when centerfielder Pete Stone drew a walk. Both advanced on a balk and Jordan scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by third baseman Jeff Cammann.

Eastern gave White all the run support he needed in the seventh inning. Right fielder Kirk Walters tripled to right-center field with one out and scored on a single up the middle by first baseman Aaron Shelbourne. Shelbourne’s RBI single was followed by back-to-back home runs from designated hitter Nolan Cork and Jordan.

White retired the last eight batters he faced in order to secure the win.

The second game of the Friday doubleheader was scheduled to be seven innings, but the Panthers needed eight to win. SEMO jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first off Eastern starter Tyson. The Panthers got one run back in the third on three walks and a single by Shelbourne.

The Panthers took a one-run lead in the following inning with a two-run homer by second baseman Chris Uhle. SEMO answered with two runs of its own to take the lead back in the bottom half of the inning, but Eastern tied the game in the top of the sixth when catcher Bret Pignatiello hit an RBI single up the middle.

Micah Gray and Nathan Stone preserved the tie for two innings until Pete Stone homered to left-center field to score the winning run in the top of the eighth inning and Nathan Stone pitched a scoreless eighth to earn his third win of the season.