Published: May 17, 2008 12:47 am            

EKU keeps postseason hopes alive by sweeping crucial doubleheader from Eastern Illinois

RICHMOND — The Colonels overcame another late-game bullpen meltdown to pick up a dramatic victory, but they still might need a victory in the regular-season finale to clinch a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Eastern Kentucky University kept its postseason hopes alive by sweeping a crucial doubleheader with Eastern Illinois on Saturday at Turkey Hughes Field.

After the Panthers rallied to tie the opener in the ninth, catcher Joe Oliver delivered a one-out, game-winning single in the bottom of the inning that gave EKU a 5-4 win. In the second game, senior McKenzie Willoughby scattered six hits in a complete-game 4-3 victory.

With the sweep, the Colonel improve to 12-14 in the OVC (26-26-1) and move into tie for sixth place with Tennessee Tech (32-21-1, 12-14 OVC).

Only the top six teams in the league qualify for the OVC Tournament.

The series finale is scheduled for 1 p.m. today at Turkey Hughes.

“We got it done,” EKU coach Elvis Dominguez said. “Bottom line is we found a way to do it when we knew we needed to do it and I couldn’t be happier for my guys. But, we still have some unfinished work.”

Despite another solid performance by All-American left-hander Christian Friedrich, it took some last-minute heroics to salvage a victory in the opener.

Friedrich allowed seven hits, walked three and struck out nine in eight innings and gave up just two unearned runs. But, three EKU relievers were unable to shut down EIU in the ninth. Willoughby eventually came on and walked two straight batters to force in the tying runs.

Clint Seymour started the winning rally with a double to right and after Tyler Barnett walked, Oliver delivered the winner.

“They kept battling and battling and Joe got that clutch hit there at the end,” Dominguez said. “It was good to see that they kept competing.”

Seymour had five hits and scored a run, while Oliver and Aaron Barrows each had two hits.

“Clint has been hot lately and he’s been doing real well,” Friedrich said. “He came up huge.”

Friedrich was coming off two nearly perfect starts and was a little shaky at times. He allowed the lead-off batter to reach in four of the first five innings, but worked his way out of a couple of early-game jams.

The left-hander gave up a pair of unearned runs in the fourth, then allowed only four more baserunners.

“It was a real important game and even though I didn’t have it all, I just wanted to make sure that I was good enough to get us the win,” Friedrich said.

Friedrich did not pick up the win, but he lowered his league-leading earned run average to 1.43.

“For anybody else, that’s a great outing,” Dominguez said.

EIU scored twice in the first inning of the second game, but EKU answered with one run in the second and two in the third, including a home run by Anthony Ottrando. After the Panthers evened things up in the fifth, the Colonels scored the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Rehmel.

Ottrando and Tyler Rehmel each had two hits and drove in a run as EKU was limited to just four hits.

Willoughby struck out five and walked two as he improved to 4-3 on the season.

        

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