The Panther baseball team’s game at Chicago State was canceled Wednesday because of poor field conditions at Brooks Field in Chicago.

Head coach Jim Schmitz said he got the call Wednesday morning that they had gotten rain Tuesday night and there was supposed to be more rain in the Chicago area Wednesday.

“You know, a bus costs us money,” Schmitz said. “It’s not a good situation. We wanted to see (freshman right-hander Joe) Greenfield pitch again. You always want to play games and get confidence in the games.”

Fifth in the OVC

After the first two weekends of Ohio Valley Conference competition the Panthers sit at 3-3 in conference play and in fifth place in the conference.

The Panthers are behind Southeast Missouri, Austin Peay and Murray State at 3-2, and Jacksonville State leads the conference at 4-2. The Panthers are also sitting even on winning percentage with this weekend’s OVC opponent, Morehead State.

The Eagles currently sit at 1-1 in conference and 5-22 overall this season. Morehead State’s only conference competition thus far came in the form of a split double header with SEMO 10 days ago.

Morehead also played Southern Illinois-Edwardsville last weekend. SIU-E will not be a part of the OVC league until next season, but the Cougars are still scheduled to take on all but one OVC team this season. Eastern takes on SIU-E May 14 and 15 in Edwardsville.

The Panthers will travel to Morehead State this weekend for a three-game set before returning home Tuesday evening to take on the University of Illinois at Peterson Park in Mattoon. The Panthers then play Illinois College at Coaches Stadium on Wednesday.

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

Senior infielder Cam Strang swings at a pitch during the Panthers’ game against Western Illinois on Wednesday at Coaches Stadium. (Jordan Boner

(more…)