Senior third baseman Mike O’Conor came up to the plate in the third inning.
The game was tied 1-1, the go ahead runs were on second and third, and O’Conor settled into the turf batters box.
He drove the first pitch he saw into right center field. The ball banged off the wall, and O’Conor scampered to second base.
That two-run double was the difference, as Eastern beat Southeast Missouri 3-2 to advance to the winners’ bracket semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championships Thursday at Mtn Dew Park in Marion.
“That was awesome,” O’Conor said. “Last year, we lost the first game and it kind of put us in a hole, but getting this first one is the biggest thing.”
The game was a pitchers’ duel between junior right-hander Bryce Riggs and SEMO right-hander Andrew Carroll. Both pitched into the seventh inning and left after throwing 113 pitches. That pitch total is the same as Riggs’ regular season outing against SEMO on May 2.
“Competing, that’d all it is honestly,” Riggs said. “I felt like I was at 100 pitches through three innings and just kept competing.
Riggs (8-2) was the winning pitcher having scattered four hits across six innings of work.
His final pitch was the one major blemish on his line. SEMO shortstop Andrew Ramirez drove the second pitch of the seventh inning down the left field line and just kept it inside the left field foul pole to cut the Redhawk deficit to one run.
Riggs walked off the field to a standing ovation from the traveling EIU fans.
Junior right-handed pitcher Anthony Solis entered the game and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced to nail down his first save of the season.
“I knew from the last couple days, [Solis] wanted the ball in that spot,” head coach Jason Anderson said. “He proved me right once he got out there.”
O’Conor was the only Panther with multiple hits, as he legged out an infield single to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. The Panthers (were unable to score in seven of the eight innings they batted in and left four runners on base after taking a 3-1 lead in the third inning.
Part of that was due to Carroll (7-4), and his ability to mix pitches. He allowed five hits, which is half the total he allowed when he faced Eastern in Charleston on May 3.
“He threw a lot of off-speed stuff, but we stuck to our approach, and we got the job done,” O’Conor said.
Eastern relied on its defense do most of the work. All but one of the 27 outs the Panthers collected were on balls put in play by the Redhawks (39-17).
The Panther offense being unable to add an insurance run after the Ramirez home run wasn’t cause for concern.
“We’re partying, whatever happens,” Anderson said. “We’ve grinded all year, so this is the time to just play hard and whatever happens, we leave it here. But, there’s no stressing. It’s going to be left on the field.”
Eastern advances to the winners’ bracket semifinal and will play the winner of Little Rock and SIUE Friday at 11 a.m.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
