Eastern capitalized on five Millikin errors as it rolled to victory over the Big Blue 10-2 Tuesday at Coaches Field.

Eight of the Panthers’ 10 runs in the game were unearned. On the flip-side, Eastern (5-16) committed just one error, accounting for one unearned run by Millikin (10-6).

“Taking advantage of those errors was a real positive thing,” Eastern head coach Jimmy Schmitz said. “We did what we had to do today, and I was happy with the run production late in the line up.”

Millikin was coming off an early season trip to Florida, where it went 4-4. Big Blue head coach Josh Manning said he expected some problems, but not to that extent.

“(The errors) were extremely untimely,” Manning said. “You can’t give a lineup like that, or any lineup, four or five outs in an inning.”

Senior pitcher Kyle Widegren got the start for the Panthers, pitching two scoreless innings, allowing no hits and striking out two. Junior Jon Palmer pitched three innings of relief for the Panthers, allowing Millikin’s only runs in the fifth. Sophomores Ryan Parsons and Brian Long relieved the last three innings without giving up a hit. Millikin had just four hits in the game.

“Palmer did a fine job today, and Parsons had perfect timing,” Schmitz said. “I was a little disappointed with (Vaculik). His focus just wasn’t there.”

While Vaculik didn’t allow any hits or runs, he did walk three straight batters to load up the bases. Vaculik was able to work out of the jam striking out the last two batters of the inning.

Eastern started hot out the gates, scoring two runs in the first inning on three hits and one error and added another run in the third. Millikin scored its only two runs in the fifth on three hits and one error.

But as the Big Blue tried to pull back into the game, cutting the lead to one, Eastern’s bats exploded the next two innings, scoring three runs in each frame.

“We wanted to stay close,” Manning said. “As long as you can stay with in a couple runs you’ve got a chance.

“The errors definitely changed the game.”

Eastern was led at the plate by sophomore Adam Varrasi and Eric Huber, who each collected two hits, drove in two runs and scored a run.