The only thing warmer than the weather at Oestrike Stadium was the offense of the Eastern Michigan baseball team.
Scoring all of their runs in the opening four innings, the Eagles made quick work of Youngstown State by dispatching the Penguins in a dominant 14-4 victory to return to the win column for the second straight game.
Eastern Michigan started the scoring bonanza in the first inning with an RBI from Harrison Travis; the catcher was just getting warmed up about what he was about to deliver in his next at-bat.
Travis hit a grand slam for the home team at the bottom of the second inning, adding to Logan Hugo's walk that led to another run to give the Eagles a 6-0 lead by the time the inning had wrapped up.
With his seventh homer of the season, the Soddy Daisy, Tennessee native wasn’t done yet - adding another base hit later to finish the outing 3-5 at the plate with the home run and five RBI’s.
Cooper Vance also knocked a three-run shot out of the park in the bottom of the third to extend Eastern Michigan’s lead to eight, but the big bats at the plate weren’t done yet.
Devin Zirwas went yard in the bottom of the fourth to begin another scoring run for the Eagles, scoring Travis on the play and preceding three additional runs that would be put on the board to put the green and white up 14-0 by the end of the inning.
While Youngstown State attempted to come back down the stretch with four runs in the sixth inning, it was too late. Ethan Slaby neutralized the visitors in the top of the seventh, holding the Penguins to no runs and handing Eastern Michigan the victory thanks to the 10-run rule.
With the win, the Eagles improved to 17-18 (9-9 MAC) on the campaign, while Youngstown State fell to 10-29 (7-11 Horizon League). Nick Keane was credited as the winning pitcher for Eastern Michigan, the first of his career, thanks to pitching a scoreless fifth inning.
Next time out, Eastern Michigan hits the road once more for a critical conference series against Bowling Green with a potential berth in the MAC Tournament in sight on April 25-27. Viewers can tune into the action next Friday at 3 p.m.
