Emory University sophomore Connor Dillman struck out 15 batters over seven shutout innings against 10^th-ranked Birmingham-Southern College, but a pair of errors in the bottom of the eighth inning led to seven unearned runs, as the Panthers defeated the Eagles 7-2 in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday night.

Dillman's 15 strikeouts were the second-most in a single game in the program's history, and one shy of the school record of 16, set by Scott Kramer on April 30^th, 1994.  The right-hander surrendered just three hits and three walks over his seven innings of work.

Emory jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the game against Birmingham-Southern starting pitcher Ralls Pennington.  After junior Jared Kahn was hit by a pitch to start the inning, he stole second and advanced to third on a ground out.  The next batter, junior Ryan Toscano, singled back to the pitcher to score Kahn from third, and advanced to second on a throwing error.  After stealing third base, Toscano scored on an RBI single from Mark Lindemann.

The Eagles continued to threaten against reliever Miles Nordgren, getting a runner into scoring position in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but failed to score.  Dillman protected the Eagles lead though, cruising through the first five innings and recording 13 of his first 15 outs by way of the strikeout, while striking out three batters in each of the first, third and fifth innings.

Dillman would strike out a batter in each of the sixth and seventh innings to run his count to 15, leaving the game with a 2-0 lead.  However, in the eighth, Birmingham-Southern started the inning with a walk and a single off reliever Graham Bloomsmith.  The sophomore would get the next two outs on a sacrifice bunt and a strikeout, but an error allowed the two runners to score and tie the game.  A batter later, pitcher David Bourbonnais drove the go-ahead run with a base hit, and scored later in the inning on a Matt Brown single off Summey.  The Panthers added two more runs on a single from Taylor McCracken, and another on a single from Evan Grovenstein.  All seven runs in the inning were team unearned runs.

Bloomsmith took the loss for Emory, falling to 1-2 on the season, as Emory dropped to 6-5.  Bourbonnais earned the win in relief, improving to 4-0, as the Panthers raised their record to 11-3.

Next up for the Eagles are the 2013 University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships in Sanford, Florida.  The eight-game, round robin style tournament will begin on Sunday, March 10^th, when Emory opens conference play with a doubleheader against Rochester at 11:00 AM and Case Western Reserve University at 2:00 PM.