To celebrate the Eastern Illinois baseball team’s first Ohio Valley Conference regular season title since 2009, head coach Jason Anderson swung the hammer into a crowd of ecstatic Panthers players to follow their tradition after every win.
Instead of handing it off to the game’s top performer, Anderson swung the hammer himself and immediately had a bucket full of water dumped on him.
Fans popped confetti as soon as the final out was recorded, and senior right-handed pitcher Christian Carew was mobbed by his teammates in excitement.
Eastern clinched the regular season title with a 9-7 victory over Western Illinois Saturday at Coaches Stadium.
“We just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and so we won the tournament [in 2023], We made big leaguers and now we’ve won the regular season,” Anderson said. “It’s something that I take extreme pride in. But all the credit goes to the players that have been through this place.”
Freshman outfielder Jake Ottensmeier drove in four of Eastern’s (29-20, 17-7) nine runs with two triples, both of which drove in a pair of runs.
The first of his two triples came on a fly ball hit down the left field line to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning after the Leathernecks (18-32, 9-18) took their first lead of the series with a solo home run by junior outfielder Tyler Large. That would be the only lead Western Illinois held.
“Coaches gave me the opportunity to come out here and play as a freshman, and it means the most that they trust me,” Ottensmeier said. “And my teammates behind me, they’re nothing but supportive all the time.”
Seven or more players got a hit in all three games of the series to go along with double-digit hits combined as a team and five or more players with at least one RBI across the three games.
“I’d say the recipe this year is fantastic because we don’t have to rely on a superstar,” Eastern hitting coach Mike Pugliese said. “No offense to our guys. I love them all. Something I said to them prior to the game today: The strength of this team is all nine together. The way that we’re doing it this year is different than last year, for sure, but it’s pretty dang similar to 2023 with some of the columns and stats that you’ll see.”
In 2023, the Panthers won the OVC tournament after finishing the regular season in fifth place.
Defensively, Eastern’s pitchers allowed 11 hits, the most all series.
After coming in relief with one out left in the fourth for sophomore right-handed pitcher Anthony Solis, junior right-handed pitcher Dalton Boruff allowed seven baserunners and three earned runs across three innings, which was enough to pick up his first career Division 1 win.
Carew sealed the win by getting the ball with two outs and bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth and getting four of the five batters he faced out. He picked up his first career save. Prior to the start of the game, Carew was one of four seniors who were honored.
“All year long, we knew that this was the goal, and just to see it come to fruition here. It’s been awesome,” Carew said. “Every single guy here did a part of helping us out, and just to be able to be on the field there, it was something special.”
Eastern will play its first game of the OVC tournament at 11 a.m. on Thursday at Mtn Dew Park in Marion.
Bryce Parker can be reached at 581-2812 or at baparker2@eiu.edu.
