Boxscore | Regional Central >> Stats: Regional | Postseason
LINCOLN, Neb. – Eastern Illinois baseball rallied back from an early 5-0 deficit to force extra innings, but Oral Roberts plated a run in the top of the 10th en route to a 8-7 victory Saturday afternoon in an elimination game at the NCAA Tournament Lincoln Regional at Haymarket Park.
The Panthers closed their 2008 campaign with a 27-30 record, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.
Alex Gee and
Brett Nommensen both homered during EIU’s four-run fifth inning. Eastern hit five long balls in its two regional games.
“This is a hard one; I’m just proud of my guys,” EIU head coach Jim Schmitz said. “We don’t really talk about wins and losses; we talk about playing the game right. We talked this morning about not quitting. This is an elimination game, and it’s called that for a reason. The way we started off wasn’t good, and we got them together, and I didn’t say too many nice things to them in about the fourth inning. I’m really happy how they responded, and I’m proud of these guys for the way we played the last two days.”
Nommensen also scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth on a wild pitch after opening the inning with a base hit. With 82 hits this season, he finished second on the EIU single-season list. Thirty-four of those hits came in the month of May. And it was his .557 average in the final month of the season that raised his year-long mark to .402. The junior is just the 18th player in program history to hit .400 or better. He’ll carry a career-best 12-game hitting streak into his senior season.
Ross Jeske pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball in his final collegiate game. The extended relief outing kept the Panthers in the game after ORU (47-13) scored six times in the first four innings.
Thirteen of the Golden Eagles’ 14 hits in the game were singles. However, ORU also scored seven of its eight runs with two outs.
“I’ve been here for four years,” Jeske said. “The past three years prior to this year, we hadn’t experienced a whole lot of success. This year, we had very low expectations going into the year. We just caught on at the right time at the (Ohio Valley Conference) Tournament and the regional. It says a lot about our leadership skills from the upperclassmen, and we’ve definitely left a footprint for future Eastern Illinois baseball players.”
After Nommensen scored with two down in the ninth,
Richie Derbak nearly delivered a walk-off single. But ORU’s David Genao made a great diving play along the first base line to keep the ball from going into right field. Geano had moved from third to first base to begin the inning. At the plate, he went 3-for-6 with two RBIs.
Derbak (1-4) suffered the loss for EIU after a two-out walk and single by subsequent hitters led to the game-winning run in the 10th. The sophomore had closed out the top of the ninth after catching the first 8 2/3 innings.
Nommensen,
Jordan Tokarz,
Zach Skidmore,
Ryan Lindquist and
Curt Restko each finished with two hits for the Panthers. Tokarz closed the year with 231 at-bats, tying Chris Uhle’s 2003 single-season school record. The junior had multiple hits in all six of EIU’s postseason games.
Eastern was the beneficiary of what proved to be a fortunate break in the fourth inning. With two on and two out and EIU already trailing 6-1, a line drive off the bat of Ryan Groth destined for center field hit the second base umpire. Per college baseball rules, it’s a dead ball as soon as it makes contact with an ump. Instead of another run scoring, the odd play only loaded the bases.
Scott Foley retired the next batter to end the inning and Oral Roberts did not score again until the top of the ninth.
Coincidentally, the Panthers had seen the same play happen while they were batting in their win against Jacksonville State at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament last week.
Eastern sent nine men to the plate in its four-run fifth inning. And ORU was fortunate to record two of the outs that it did during the frame.
Gee hit a solo shot to left with one out, connecting for his second home run in as many days. Erik Huber, who homered in three straight games during the 2007 spring break trip, was the last Panther to go deep in consecutive contests.
Lindquist followed Gee’s long ball with a line drive to the wall in right center where Brendan Duffy leapt and made a great catch.
Restko restarted the rally with a two-out single and scored on Nommensen’s fifth home run of the season.
Tokarz and Skidmore followed with consecutive singles and
Tristan Facer drew a walk to load the bases and chase ORU starter Jerry Sullivan, who was working on a two-hitter entering the frame.
All-American Carlos Luna, who worked 4 1/3 innings of two-run relief to improve to 13-0 on the season, gave up a base hit to the first batter he faced,
Jordan Kreke. Tokarz scored easily but Skidmore was held at third on the hard-hit ball to left. Unfortunately, Facer made a wide turn around second base and was tagged out to end the inning.
Facer made up for the baserunning gaffe in the seventh, knocking in the game-tying run with a sacrifice fly to center. Tokarz and Skidmore singled and doubled, respectively, in front of EIU’s cleanup hitter.
After Nommensen singled to leadoff the ninth, Tokarz reached safely on a sacrifice bunt when Luna bobbled the ball while trying to flip it to first base. Skidmore moved both runners up with a high chopper to second base. Oral Roberts then intentionally walked
Bart Thyer, who had moved into Facer’s spot in the order when he replaced Derbak behind the plate, to load the bases.
Luna was able to strikeout Kreke but uncorked a wild pitch on his first offering to Derbak. Had Genao not snared the hot shot off Derbak’s bat cleanly, the Panthers would have been playing a third regional game Sunday.
Eastern scored its first run of the game thanks to consecutive hits from Lindquist (doubled) and Restko (singled) to open the third inning.
Jeske relieved
Tyler Brandon with one out in the sixth and struck out three during his outing, including All-American Brian Van Kirk with one on and one out in the seventh. He retired five consecutive batters at one point and worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning, EIU’s only such frame of its two regional games.
The only run the southpaw surrendered came on a two-out single in the ninth inning.
The Panthers will have bid adieu to four seniors but are slated to return eight starting position players for the 2009 season.
NCAA Lincoln Regional
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Eastern Illinois Press Conference (Courtesy of Huskers.com)
Head Coach Jim Schmitz
Opening Statement
“This is a hard one. I’m just proud of my guys. We talked about it a little bit yesterday. We don’t really talk about wins and losses; we talk about playing the game right. We talked this morning about not quitting. This is an elimination game, and it’s called that for a reason. The way we started off wasn’t good, and we got them together, and I didn’t say too many nice things to them in about the fourth inning. I’m really happy how they responded, and I’m proud of these guys for the way we played the last two days.”
On the ninth inning
“In the (Ohio Valley Conference) Tournament, I didn’t bunt very much, and people said we were lucky. So I was going over that a little bit in my mind of what I was going to do. (Jordan) Tokarz is the worst bunter we have. But we had to tie it again and get lucky, and to go into extra innings would make it pretty draining for them. That’s what I was thinking. Obviously, they made the error on Tokarz. I really wish with that one pitch to (Zach) Skidmore, we took the bunt off to hit, and it was a changeup. I was thinking, ‘That’s what I wanted.’ You always want to try to tie it just because it would have been a heart break for Oral Roberts, but it says a lot about their program and how they went out and scored the next two innings there.”
On EIU’s pitching
“TK (
Tyler Kehrer) was not sharp. We then had to script it out not only to win this game. When Foley was in there, he couldn’t be in there too long. We had to win this game. We’re not here to win one and go home. So we scripted it out, and the guys did a great job. You can talk about the walks that hurt us, but we just came up short. I’m really proud of how the guys battled this year.”
On the atmosphere of the dugout
“There was a little frustration. Since we’ve been here all week, we haven’t really been able to stop the other teams on offense. There was a little frustration because we were down by so many runs. But once we got a couple of hits going, we knew we were going to start stringing the hits together just like we’ve been doing. The last eight games we’ve been able to do a lot of damage with two outs and keep on rolling.”
On scoring on a wild pitch in the ninth inning
“Sean (Lyons), our third base coach, was telling me he’d probably be throwing all sliders and to be aggressive if the ball was in the dirt. I just saw a kick go out, and I saw it go to the backstop, and I just took off.”
On what turned the game around
“I’d say once we came in and were down by so much, once we got hits going, it just took that one little hit to really get us going.”
On the experience of playing in an NCAA regional
“I’ve been here for four years. The past three years prior to this year, we hadn’t experienced a whole lot of success. This year, we had very low expectations going into the year. We just caught on at the right time at the (Ohio Valley Conference) Tournament and the regional. It says a lot about our leadership skills from the upperclassmen, and we’ve definitely left a footprint for future Eastern Illinois baseball players.”
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Ben Turner, Asst. SID