With the brand-new stadium lights glistening in the top of the 10th, Northern Illinois went ahead by one with senior infielder Cole Smith drilling the ball down the right field line to bring in junior outfielder Charlie Parcell from first base.
That would be the game-winning run in Eastern Illinois’ 5-4 loss to NIU in the first ever game illuminated by lights at Coaches Stadium on the newly named Frost Field Tuesday evening. The loss snaps EIU’s seven-game winning streak in its first game at home this season.
“It’s pretty cool to play under the lights and to be the first year to do this is pretty cool,” graduate infielder Brett Stanley said.
In the bottom of the 10th, the first two Panther batters were walked by senior right-hander Gavin Micklinghoff, leaving runners on first and second with zero outs.
However, Micklinghoff got three straight outs to close out the game.
That added to the 14 total number of runners left on base by Eastern.
“The opportunities are there,” head coach Jason Anderson said. “If we would just bunt a guy over and then hit a ground ball to the middle of the field. Just anything to score a run and we just weren’t capable of doing that tonight. It was a bad effort but that is baseball sometimes.
NIU (14-7) had more runners left on base with 15. Though, scoring once in extra innings, a two-run home run by graduate first baseman Gavin Baldwin and holding EIU to four hits, which is tied for the least the Panthers have had all season, was enough for the win.
Eastern (13-9) have had four hits in three other games and only won one of them. That win came from when they shutout Arkansas-Pine Bluff on March 17.
With the atmosphere of being under the lights and the first home game of the season, Anderson was hoping for one of his hitters to come through.
“It was exciting [to play under lights for the first time ever at home],” Anderson said. “There are a lot of people here, so you’re hoping somebody wants to step up and be a hero but to watch 10 innings of baseball and only get four hits is a little anticlimactic.”
Stanley had two of the four Panther hits. He also walked twice, something many EIU hitters did.
NIU walked 12 Eastern hitters, but only one of those walks came around to score when graduate second baseman Chris Worcester was forced home with a bases loaded walk to tie the game 3-3 in the seventh inning.
“That was a bad effort on our part,” Anderson said. “They walked us [12] times and we got one run off the [12] walks. So we just didn’t come ready to hit today apparently.”
However, Eastern did take advantage of Northern’s wild pitches, scoring on two of them.
Something the Panthers pitchers had none of. They also allowed four less walks.
Three of the eight total walks came from the starting pitcher, senior right-hander Dalton Boruff, who went 3 and one third innings and allowed one earned run and four hits.
The losing pitcher is graduate right-hander James Geshel who was pitching in his first game ever at Coaches Stadium and gave up the run in the 10th resulting in him getting his first loss of the season.
Geshel pitched two innings and is coming off a weekend series where he got two saves.
Now EIU’s sights are set on its next OVC weekend series taking on Morehead State who is 0-3 in conference play.
Stanley said getting back to practice and focusing on what works for them as a team is important going into this weekend series.
The series is at Coaches Stadium, and the first game starts at 3 p.m. on Friday.
Bryce Parker can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
