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Western Illinois University Athletics

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7
Western Illinois WIU 18-32
9
Winner Eastern Illinois EIU 29-20
Western Illinois WIU
18-32
7
Final
9
Eastern Illinois EIU
29-20
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Western Illinois WIU 0 1 0 0 1 1 2 2 0 7 11 1
Eastern Illinois EIU 0 2 0 0 1 4 2 0 X 9 12 1

W: BORUFF, Dalton (1-5) L: Stotlar, Karsten (0-2) S: CAREW, Christian (1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

WIU Baseball Falls In Season Finale At EIU

CHARLESTON, Ill-  In a back-and-forth contest that saw four lead changes and two ties, the Western Illinois Baseball team fell on Saturday afternoon by a score of 9-7 in the final game of the regular season. With the loss, the Leathernecks have been officially eliminated from the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, finishing .5 games back of the eight seed with a 9-18 conference record.

Harrison Dubois got his first conference start of the season this afternoon, going five innings and allowing three runs on six hits while striking out two. On a day when the Leathernecks needed a good start on the mound, Dubois delivered. Tyler Large got the Leathernecks on the board first in the top of the second inning on a solo home run to left field to grab an early 1-0 lead. After giving up a two run triple in the bottom of the second inning that put the Panthers in front 2-1, Dubois would settle in and throw two scoreless innings allowing only one hit to keep the Leathernecks in the ball game. 

In the top of the fifth, Kyree Alexander would lead off the inning with a hard hit ground ball that went off the EIU third baseman's glove and would reach second base on the error. Wandel Campana would bunt Alexander over to third on a sacrifice before Liam Bushey would bring him home on an RBI single to center field to knot the game at two a piece. 

Every time the Leathernecks took the lead or tied the game, EIU would respond in the bottom of the inning. The Panthers would score a run in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-2 lead after five innings of play, but Brock Lummus would answer right back in the top of the sixth with his eighth home run of the season to tie the game at three. Just like in the bottom of the fifth, EIU would score four runs of their own to take a 7-3 lead after six innings.

WIU would attempt a comeback in both the seventh and eighth innings as they scored two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Liam Bushey would record another RBI single with the bases loaded followed by a Krayton Morse RBI SAC fly to left field making it a 7-5 game heading to the bottom of the seventh. EIU would add on to their lead however, scoring two runs in the seventh to make it a 9-5 game.

Liam Bushey would again come up with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth and would record an RBI walk on a pitch clock violation followed by Morse getting an RBI single up the middle to make it a 9-7 game. The comeback attempt would end there as the Leathernecks would go down in order in the ninth to end the game. Offensively, Liam Bushey went 2-4 with 3 RBI while Kyree Alexander went 3-4 with three singles and three runs scored. Tyler Large also had a good day at the plate, going 2-3 with a home run, double, and two runs scored. 

Despite the loss, the Leathernecks made a big step in the right direction this season. Their 18 wins, 9 conference wins, and 9 home wins was the most in a single season since 2019. WIU will look to build off of this heading into the 2026 season. 

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