The Panther baseball team traveled south to Mississippi and Alabama as their season-long 13-game road trip continued during spring break. Unfortunately, for the Panthers its record went south as well.

Eastern dropped its first five games on the trip as the Panthers lost three to Southern Mississippi and two more to South Alabama.

Prior to the three-game series against 18th-ranked Southern Mississippi, Panthers head coach Jim Schmitz noted the Golden Eagles were a “really good team” and just “one game away from going to the Super Regionals” in last year’s College World Series. After a three- game sweep by the Golden Eagles in which the Panthers were no-hit, scored just three runs and were shut out twice, Schmitz’s statement proved true.

In game one on March 12, Southern Miss. jumped out to an early lead off Eastern starter Kyle Widegren and coasted to a 10-3 victory. Widegren, a junior college transfer from Parkland, lasted five innings but surrendered 10 hits and seven runs as his record fell to 0-2 on the season.

Saturday’s afternoon tilt went down in history as the Golden Eagles’ Cliff Russum pitched the third nine-inning no-hitter in school history as Southern Mississippi rolled over the Panthers 12-0. Russum struck out 15 of the 29 Panther batters he faced and walked just three hitters as the right-hander improved to 4-0 overall.

“He (Russum) controlled the game throughout, and he’s been pretty good every time on the mound this season,” Golden Eagles coach Corky Palmer said. “He’s a real tough guy, and it was a great effort.”

The Panthers best chance to push across a run came in the third inning when Marcus Jackson led off with a walk and then stole second base. Jackson advanced to third with two outs but was stranded 90-feet from the plate when Jeff Cammann struck out to end the inning.

Eastern went down in order six of the nine innings and other then Jackson, no Panther advanced past first base.

The Panther bats remained cold as Southern Miss. swepted the series with an 11-0 victory on March 14. Freshman Patrick Ezell went eight innings giving up six hits, walking none and striking out 10 to get the victory.

“Patrick did a good job for us today,” Palmer said. “I feel better about the next few weeks now that Patrick is pitching well for us.”

Eastern used seven pitchers during the game with only freshman Brian Long going more than an inning. Junior right-hander Anthony Billups took the loss for Eastern when he gave up three runs in the first inning.

Eastern faired little better in the series opener against South Alabama March 16. Jaguar pitchers Bryan Adams and Bert Heath combined to one-hit the Panthers as Eastern was held without a run for the third straight game and dropped the contest 5-0. Marcus Jackson prevented Eastern’s second no-hitter in three games with a two-out double in the fourth inning.

“I thought our pitching and defense were good,” South Alabama coach Steve Kittrell said. “Adams had good velocity on his ball and threw a good breaking ball. He walked a few too many (five) but had a pretty good outing.”

The loss spoiled a solid performance from Eastern’s freshman hurler Erik Huber who made his first collegiate start and went six innings, giving up six hits and three earned runs.

Eastern made up for their offensive futility with 24 runs in the series finale against South Alabama, however, the Panther pitching staff could not hold an eight run lead in the seventh inning and lost a wild contest 25-24.

Eastern ended its 28-inning scoreless streak with two runs in the first off Jaguar starter Daniel Roberts. The Panthers quickly lost the lead as South Alabama struck back for nine runs in the first two innings. Eastern’s Matt Hall gave up seven runs (five earned) in 1 1/3 innings to take most of the damage from the Jaguars.

Eastern scored six runs in the fourth and seven in the sixth to open up an 18-10 lead after six innings, but the bullpen of Alex Chapple, Mike Manns and Andy Kuntz surrendered 12 runs in the seventh inning as South Alabama regained the lead 22-18.

But the Panthers fought back in the top of the ninth with six runs to regain the lead 24-22. Eastern brought in Jeff Cammann to close the game, but the former third baseman could not end the team’s nine game losing streak. Cammann was wild as he hit a batter to lead off the inning and then gave up a double and hit another batter to load the bases. Senior Brian Long entered in relief and enticed a Jaguar batter to hit a fly ball to center, but Marcus Jackson dropped his second fly ball of the game to allow the tying runs to score. South Alabama won the game two batters later with a sacrifice fly from Brad Gordon.

Eastern’s 24 runs tie as the sixth highest total in NCAA history by a losing team and the 49 combined runs set a new Stanky Field record.