Eastern brought its bats to the windy city; the problem was that they forgot how to stop the opponent.

The Panthers suffered its 10th loss in its last 13 games in a 16-15 loss to the Illinois-Chicago Flames.

The Panthers started out painting the picture of this game as an EIU blowout after putting up four runs in the opening inning on the strength of a trio of home runs by Erik Huber, Jason Cobb and Keiji Szalo.

After an initial 4-0 lead, EIU head coach Jim Schmitz handed the ball to freshman starter Alex Guttosh. The Chicago native did not give his friends and family anything to smile about as he recorded 2/3 inning, facing 10 batters, allowing seven runs (all of them earned) on five hits, walking two batters and giving up two home runs.

At the end of the opening frame, UIC was up 7-4, and the pace of the contest was dictated at that moment.

The Panthers got a solid evening at the plate by Huber. The Belleville native went 5-for-6 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Szalo provided power in the sixth spot by going deep twice and earning four RBIs.

Eastern knotted the score at 13 when Flames third baseman Bryan Russo homered over the left field wall off reliever Brian Long to give UIC the lead for good. The round tripper was the second of the night for Russo.

Mike Manns received the loss for the Panthers after failing to get an out in the seventh frame. The left-handed freshman faced two batters walking one and allowing a base hit. Both UIC runners scored and were charged to Manns (0-1) whose ERA was already 14.85 entering the game.

UIC reliever Zach Peterson (5-1) got his fifth win of the year after coming in the seventh and eighth inning and limiting Eastern to only two runs.

The save was earned by Flames closer Ryan Zink, who surrendered only one hit in 1 1/3 innings of work.