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Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Junior Brent Cobb recorded his first career complete game and first shutout in Eastern Kentucky's 4-0 victory over Eastern Illinois in the series opener on Friday.

Cobb (5-5) allowed just six hits in nine innings.  He did not strike out a batter, but walked only one.  He’s now allowed just one earned run in his last 25 innings over three starts.

The game remained scoreless until the sixth inning.  The Colonels left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth.  The Panthers stranded runners at second and third in the bottom of the fifth. 

With one out in the sixth, Sean Hagen doubled to right center.  Freshman Kyle Nowlin followed with an RBI single up the middle.  Three batters later, Alex Hughes drew a bases loaded walk to score Nowlin.  Kenny Hostrander then drove a fly ball to center, deep enough to score Shaun Ball for a 3-0 EKU lead.

Another bases loaded walk, this time in the top of the ninth by Nowlin, pushed the Colonel lead to 4-0.  Nowlin finished 2-for-4 with a run and two RBIs.  Doug Teegarden had two hits in four at bats.

Demetre Taylor was 2-for-4 for the Panthers.  Jake Johansmeier (2-4) started for EIU and allowed three runs on six hits in five and one-third innings.  He walked four and struck out one.

The two Easterns are scheduled to continue their series with game two on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

NOTES
The Colonels have now won 10 of their last 13 conference games.

Junior Brent Cobb’s first career complete game, and shutout, came in his 12th career start.

Brent Cobb turned in his third straight quality (6-plus innings, 3 ERs or less) start and his fifth of the season.

EKU’s starting line-up featured four freshmen – Doug Teegarden (3B), Kyle Nowlin (LF), Kenny Hostrander (2B) and Luke Wurzelbacher (SS).

Austin Grisham extended the longest current hitting streak by a Colonel to 10 games.  The longest this season is 11 games by Sean Hagen and Bryan Soloman.

In its last 13 OVC games, Eastern has out-scored its opponents 129-65.

EKU strengthened its grip on fifth place in the OVC standings.  Sixth place Southeast Missouri lost at Murray State, giving the Colonels a 1.5 game lead over SEMO.

Eastern Kentucky improves to 29-27 all-time against Eastern Illinois