The UTM baseball team struggled at the plate against host Eastern Illinois Saturday afternoon in Ohio Valley Conference action. The Skyhawks managed just three hits in the first game and suffered their first OVC loss of the season, 6-1.

Eastern Illinois jumped out front to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning, but the Skyhawks answered in the top of the fourth with a run.

Lance Renton doubled down the left field line and scored on Kevin Holt’s single to right field.

Eastern Illinois scored one run in the bottom of the fourth and added three more runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Junior catcher Jason Cobb hit a two-run home run in the fifth to account for two of the Panthers’ six runs.

EIU’s Brandon Murphy gave up a single to Nick Luper in the fifth inning and then shut the door on the Skyhawks with four innings of no-hit ball. Murphy picked up the complete-game, three-hit win. He allowed one walk and struck out six.

Adam Ledlow suffered the loss for the Skyhawks. He pitched 4.2 innings and gave up five earned runs, nine hits and three walks. Eric Walker relieved Ledlow and pitched 3.1 innings. He allowed two hits and struck out one.

In the second game, the Skyhawks managed five hits and four runs. However, they dropped a 5-4 decision to the Panthers.

The Skyhawks scored first in game two with a run in the first inning and three runs in the fourth inning. Blake Turner plated the Skyhawks’ first run of the game with a single to right center field that scored Zach Dean who drew a walk.

In the fourth inning the Skyhawks used one hit and an Eastern Illinois error to produce three runs. The Skyhawks also drew four walks in the inning. Douglas Nicodemus singled up the middle to score Dean who drew one of the four walks in the frame.

Keiji Szalo hit a solo home run in the fifth to put the Panthers on the board and Mark Chagnon singled to left center to drive in two more runs. Cobb singled off Skyhawk southpaw Micky Dobson in the sixth inning and drove in the tying and winning runs for the host Panthers. Dobson suffered the loss for the Skyhawks and fell to 2-2 on the season.

The Skyhawks have played 10 one-run games this season and the 5-4 loss to Eastern Illinois marks only the second one-run loss of the season for the team.

On Sunday however, the Skyhawks capitalized on a key error in its four-run sixth inning to pull out a come-from-behind 8-5 victory over the Panthers.

Skyhawk starter Ryan Rockholt worked eight innings to pick up the win, allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits with seven walks. Four UTM players each tallied two hits with Jason Hockaday and Blake Turner driving in a combined seven runs from the middle of the order.

Chris Vaculik (2-4), the first of three EIU relievers to take the mound after Gierich departed, was saddled with the loss. Erik Huber and Keiji Szalo led EIU with three hits and an RBI apiece.

The Skyhawks currently sit in second place in the OVC standings with an conference record of 4-2 and a 9-16 record overall. They return to action today with a single home game against Southern Illinois at 3 p.m. at Skyhawk Field.

Tomorrow the Skyhawks will play a rare night game against the Memphis Tigers at 6:30 p.m. at Elam Stadium in Union City, home to the summer KIT league Union City Greyhounds.