Despite reeling from two devastating losses, the Eastern baseball team will host Tennessee Martin at 1 p.m. Saturday for the first of a doubleheader in Coaches Stadium to battle for possible playoff position.

This match-up has more at stake than a simple three games. Eastern is trying to gain the sixth best record out of a 10-team to make the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, a shot at glory. Tennessee Martin (19-21, 4-8 OVC) is tied for eighth in league standings, while Eastern (11-28, 6-8 OVC) is in seventh. Both squads trail Morehead State (23-19, 5-6 OVC) for the coveted sixth spot.

“Our goal every weekend is two out of three,” Gee said. “Our major goal for the rest of the year is to make the OVC Tournament. If we make the OVC Tournament, everyone starts 0-0 and everyone has a chance to win.”

Gee is riding a significantly hot bat by hitting 5-for-5 against Southern Illinois-Carbondale, with this being the first five-hit game by a Panther this season. This also was a career high for Gee.

“It’s about coming out early,” Gee said.

“Baseball is about making adjustments and my swing has been a little off lately. Even at Murray State, I had a pretty decent weekend but my swing didn’t feel right. I went out here with Coach (Schmitz) and made a minor adjustment with my stance in the box and I really felt more comfortable and was able to see pitches better Wednesday.”

Tennessee Martin has one of the most potent offenses in the OVC, hitting .322 as a team and blasting 52 homers. The Skyhawks feature the dangerous senior catcher Ty Nelson, who is batting .416 for fifth in the league, has hit seven home runs and has 38 RBIs.

Besides Nelson, Tennessee Martin juniors third/first combination of Trey Karlen and Wes Patterson along with sophomore right fielder Jordan Owen and have 32 home runs between them for the Skyhawks. These batters also averaged .344 this season.

“They are such an offensive team that I wish our football team could stop them defensively,” Schmitz said. “The key with looking at an offensive team is when you can look at some of the scores that put up around the league. They have put up unbelievable numbers. There is really no sense in talking about it, if we are going to swing the bats ourselves, it will take the pressure off our team.”

Losing this past week has not been enjoyable for Gee and his teammates, getting blasted by Missouri 10-2 Tuesday and losing in the 10th to the Salukis 8-6 Wednesday.

Gee said Eastern’s blowing late inning leads is disheartening.

“It’s very, very frustrating to keep losing games like this,” Gee said. “In a positive way, we never had a game like this all year where we blew a lead and then came back in the ninth and battled back.”

Bob Bajek can be reached

at 581-7944 or rtbajek@eiu.edu

Senior first baseman Alex Gee tosses the ball to junior pitcher Brent McNeil to get the out at first during the game against Southern Illinois Wednesday afternoon at Coaches Stadium. Gee had one run and five hits against SIU. (Audrey Sawyer / The Daily E

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