Eastern struggled with hitting at Illinois on Tuesday.

It resulted in an 8-0 loss.

“We just aren’t swinging the bat well,” said Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz. “We got a couple hits, but nothing was that great.”

The Panthers (17-18) only had four hits on the day compared to Illinois’ 15.

Eastern’s hitting came down to singles from sophomore second baseman Jordan Kreke, freshman catcher Kory Peppenhorst, senior right fielder Casey Spears and senior left fielder Mark Chagnon.

“We didn’t get anything done offensively,” Schmitz said. “We didn’t score anything, and if you don’t score, you can’t win. It’s that simple.”

Three of the four singles were short lived because Illinois (17-17) turned the very next at bat into a double play and ended the inning.

Eastern’s pitching staff struggled, too.

The Panther pitching staff gave up eight runs on 15 hits with both starting pitcher junior Alex Guttosch and sophomore Ross Jeske giving up four runs each.

“They pitched extremely well and played good defense,” Schmitz said. “With us not hitting the ball, it just wasn’t good.”

Guttosch (0-4) pitched 5 and two-thirds innings and allowed 12 hits with six earned runs and only struck out one.

The Panthers kept the game within reach, 3-0, but gave up five runs in the sixth.

“It was kind of in and out for (Illinois),” Schmitz said. “We are in sort of a downtime of the season and we are hoping we can start to climb out of it.”

The Panthers return to action against Illinois State at 3 p.m. today at Coaches Stadium.