East Central Reporter

 In a pair of close games, Dayton was able to score late in both contests and take a pair of one run games over Eastern Illinois.  Dayton won 8-7 in the opener in seven innings and then won 7-6 in the second game.

GAME ONE
DAYTON 8, EASTERN ILLINOIS 7  (7 Innings)
Dayton scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take game one of Saturday's twinbill with Eastern Illinois, 8-7.

EIU jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the top of the third as the Panthers put a four-spot on the board in the top of the inning.  Cole Gober began the scoring with an RBI single to left scoring Chris Worcester.  Cade Zalewski then cleared the bases with a three-run homer to right.

Dayton began to chip away at the EIU lead with an RBI double by Eddie Yamin IV in the third and two more runs in the fourth.  Ben Jones had a sacrifice fly and Marcos Pujols added an RBI single.

Ryan Ignoffo added to the Panthers lead in the top of the sixth with an RBI through the right side.  Ignoffo and Gober led EIU with two hits each.

Carlos Castillo homered to left center in the sixth to bring the Flyers within two runs.  He would tie the game with a two-run single up the middle in the seventh.   Zachary Scott then reached on an error allowing the game winning run to score for Dayton.

Eli Majick (1-1) picked up the win in relief for Dayton.  Zane Robbins (0-1) had the loss on the mound for EIU.

GAME TWO
DAYTON 7, EASTERN ILLINOIS 6
In the second game of a four-game weekend series, Dayton edged Eastern Illinois 7-6 scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh in a back-and-forth game.

Cade Zalewski hit his second home run of the day with a two run shot in the top of the seventh which put EIU up 6-5 at the time.  Zalewski was 2-for-4 in the game.

In the bottom of the frame Dayton regained the lead with a two-run home run by Eddie Yamin IV, his second homer of the game.  Yamin also homered in the Flyers three run third as they connected for three home runs in the inning.  Marcos Pujols and Michael Adair had solo home runs in the inning.  Matt Maloney had a solo home run in the fourth for Dayton.

The Panthers took an early 2-0 lead in the second scoring a pair of unearned runs.  EIU would get another big run scoring hit in the fourth with a two-run single by Lincoln Riley which put the Panthers ahead 4-3.

Nicholas Rucker led EIU going 3-for-4 at the plate.   Chris Worcester also added two hits.

Five different Flyers had two hits.  Yamin IV drove in three runs for Dayton.

Matthew Johnson (1-0) picked up the win in relief.  Jonathon Hanscom (0-1) suffered the loss in relief. 

Original source can be found here.