CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois swept a doubleheader from SIUE Saturday winning 8-7 in game one and 13-4 in the second game.

The pair of wins moved Eastern Illinois over SIUE in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Panthers are now 6-5. SIUE is 5-6. The Cougars are 12-23 overall. Eastern Illinois is 11-19.

SIUE scored a run but stranded the go-ahead runners on base in the ninth inning of game one, falling 8-7 in a back-and-forth contest.

"Game one wasn't a very cleanly played game," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We had some defensive miscues that we couldn't overcome, and we left too many guys on base."

SIUE committed four errors in the game, leading to a pair of unearned runs.

Both teams scored in the second inning with the Cougars getting a run with three straight two-out hits. Chase Bloomer singled to score Lucas Spence and put SIUE on top before EIU tied the score in the bottom of the inning.

The Panthers scored three in the third to lead 4-1.

The Cougars took advantage of an error for two runs in the fourth before Ethan Willoughby hit a two-run homer to put SIUE up 5-4.

EIU tied the score with an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth and went up 7-5 in the fifth.

Lucas Spence hit his third home run of the year in the sixth to bring the Cougars back within a run, but the Panthers went up 7-6 in the seventh inning.

In the ninth, SIUE got a two-out from John Stallcup and a walk to Daniel Gierer. A Zack Floyd hit scored a run, but the Cougars left two men on when the game ended.

Tyler DeLong (2-3) started and pitched the first four innings allowing seven runs on nine hits. He struck out two and walked four. Ian Benner finished the game, allowing a run on three hits over four innings. He struck out one.

"Ian Benner did a nice job for us out of the pen," Lyons said of his reliever.

Spence, Willoughby and Drew Mize each had two hits for the Cougars.

Ethan Willoughby had a nice day at the plate and Lucas Spence continues to swing a hot bat," Lyons said.

The Cougars got out to a fast start in game two. Ryan Niedzwiedz hit a solo home run and John Stallcup added a three-run shot to give SIUE a 4-0 lead after a half-inning against EIU starter Bryce Riggs.

The Panthers then proceeded to score 13 unanswered runs in game two, scoring at least a run in every inning.

"We got off to a good start with two big swings in that first inning," Lyons said. "And then just couldn't do anything else."

The Cougars managed just three hits the rest of the second game.

The Panthers scored three times in the first inning, tied the game in the second inning with a run and then took the lead with a run in the third inning to chase starter Alex Rodriguez (2-3). Rodriguez surrendered five earned runs in 2.1 innings.

EIU made it 8-4 with a three-run fourth. The Panthers scored single runs in the fifth an sixth, two in the seventh and another in the eighth.

"We just couldn't stop the bleeding," Lyons added.

The Panthers outhit SIUE 17-7 in game two. Danny Infante led the way with four hits for Eastern Illinois.

Spence was 2-4 in the finale and now has a 20-game hitting streak. Gage Franck was 2-3.

The Cougars and Panthers will finish the series with a 1 p.m. game Sunday afternoon.

"We need to regroup," Lyons said. "We'll come out to salvage a win for the weekend."