Panther baseball will hit the road this weekend as Eastern travels to Morehead State to take on the Eagles in a three-game, Ohio Valley Conference series.

The Panthers are coming off a week in which they lost 4-0 at home to cross-state rival, Western Illinois, Tuesday before having Wednesday’s game at Chicago State canceled because of poor field conditions.

The day gave the Panthers a chance to do some extra work on hitting, according to head coach Jim Schmitz.

“We had a really good, quick practice today,” Schmitz said on Wednesday. “(We had) good weather, so we got to hit a lot.”

The Panthers are currently 7-19 overall, but 3-3 in OVC play, while Morehead State is 5-22 and 1-1 in the OVC.

Schmitz said he thinks despite not playing well last weekend against Austin Peay, he thinks his team is still right near the top of the OVC in the standings. The Panthers sit just one game out of first place in the conference.

“Early on, we didn’t play well at Austin Peay and still came away with a win,” Schmitz said. “We’re not happy with just one, but at times you’ve just got to fight your way through that kind of playing and that’s what we did down there. There’s eight weekends in the year, we’ve got six to go. Right now, everyone’s playing to win it.”

Eastern has had problems lately not only with defense, but offensively as well. The team has been leaving runners on base, as they out-hit Western Illinois on Tuesday, but stranded 10 runners on base in the shutout loss. Schmitz said that was something the team worked on this week, particularly on Wednesday during the off day.

“We did a round called ‘line drive or you’re out,'” Schmitz said. “Just trying to put a little pressure on them to really get the idea that you’ve got to get a good pitch and handle the pitch, it’s not just hacking away. We’re leaving guys on and the reason is we’re ether swinging at bad pitches or we’re just not taking good swings.”

Red-shirt junior outfielder Ben Thoma has been struggling for the Panthers at the plate this year, batting only .237 and .217 in OVC play, but he does lead the team in RBI’s with 16.

“As you look at our line up, there’s not a lot of people behind him swinging the bat that well,” Schmitz said. “He’s got to learn, as (now junior) Zach Borenstein learned last year, as a hitter you’re going to have to get your pitch. When you swing at somebody else’s pitches they’re going to keep throwing it. That’s a lesson all good titers learn, they’ve got to get a good pitch.”

The Panthers are set to play a double header Saturday in Morehead, Ky., against the Eagles with the first game set to start at 1 p.m. Sunday’s single game is set to close out the three-game series, also starting at 1 p.m.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944

or bmkupiec@eiu.edu

Running it in: Panthers score early to secure 24th victory

(more…)