Last weekend the Eastern baseball team opened their season losing all three games of their weekend series against Southern Mississippi.

Even though his team lost by scores of 6-2, 9-1, and 6-0 over the weekend, Panther head coach Jim Schmitz said he gives plenty of credit to the Golden Eagles. Schmitz pointed out that Southern Miss. is a good team, ranked No. 25 in the country.

Schmitz said his team had trouble offensively this weekend in Hattiesburg, Miss, and this leads to some of their problems with winning games.

“They (Southern Miss) are a really good team,” Schmitz said. “We didn’t swing the bats against them at all this weekend. If you don’t score, you don’t win.”

Coach impressed with pitchers

One bright spot for the Panthers on opening weekend was the work of the pitching staff. Coach Schmitz said if it were not for the bullpen’s fine work over the weekend, the scores might have ended up being rather lopsided.

Senior right-hander Brent McNeil led the Panther bullpen over the weekend by pitching 5.1 scoreless innings of relief across two appearances, allowing four hits, while striking out three and walking one. McNeil’s total led all Panthers in innings pitched for the opening weekend and was one of three Panther pitchers not to surrender an earned run throughout the weekend.

The other Panthers to pitch scoreless balls against the Golden Eagles were a pair of Charleston natives, as red-shirt senior Josh Wilson pitched two innings of hitless ball and true senior Matt Miller retired five hitters over the course of his two weekend outings.

Defensive lineups may change

The Panthers committed six errors over the weekend, something Coach Schmitz said cannot continue to happen. Schmitz said the team needs to play better defense, and he might look at different defensive lineups to try to improve the team defensively.

Around the OVC

In other OVC pre-conference action this past weekend, Murray State was swept by North Carolina- Asheville, as the Thoroughbreds fell by scores of 15-11, 15-5 and 7-6.

Austin Peay was the only OVC team to host a series this weekend, as they swept Valparaiso by final scores of 7-3 Friday, 11-10 in extra innings on Saturday and 7-3 again Sunday.

Morehead State traveled to Western Carolina for the weekend and was swept by scores of 9-2, 18-0 and 9-6.

Eastern Kentucky was hosted by Pepperdine University, and lost all three of their games by scores of 9-2 Friday, 9-8 in extra innings on Saturday and 3-1 on Sunday.

Southeast Missouri State took two out of three over the weekend, as SEMO beat Louisiana-Lafayette Friday and Saturday by final scores of 4-2 and 9-1, respectively. SEMO would fall to their hosts on Sunday; however, as Louisiana-Lafayette took Sunday’s match up by a score of 4-2.

Tennessee Martin lost all three of their weekend games, as South Alabama won by scores of 6-1, 4-3 and 11-10.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville played host to Central Arkansas, who will host Eastern next weekend. Central Arkansas swept SIU-E, coming out on top by scores of 5-4, 14-4 and 16-13.

Finally, Tennessee Tech played a pair of games on Saturday, losing to No. 18 Coastal Carolina by a score of 6-2 and losing to Virginia Tech by a score of 11-9. Sunday saw the Golden Eagles fall to Boston College by a score of 6-1.

The Panthers will see their next action this weekend as they travel to Conway, Ark. to face Central Arkansas in a three game series Friday-Sunday. Friday’s first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu

Mike Hoekstra, a red-shirt junior, pitches against Morehead State on April 11, 2010, at Coaches Stadium. Hoekstra was selected as one of the top pitchers in the OVC this season by CollegeBaseballInsider.com earlier this month. (File PhotoThe Daily Easter

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