The 2013-14 winter has been the worst during Eastern baseball coach Jim Schmitz’s 20 years in Charleston.

Since the fall, practices and scrimmages have been strictly exercised in the Lantz Fieldhouse, giving the Panthers’ outfield, which features three players that have never played next to each other, no time to practice outdoors.

On Friday, Eastern begins its season on the road, playing four games against No. 14 Louisiana-Lafayette.

Schmitz said although Eastern has the disadvantage of having to practice inside, while the Ragin’ Cajuns have the luxury of playing in the South, where they can practice outside, the Panthers do not view the first series of the season as unfair.

“Is it fair that we’re going down South,” Schmitz said. “It’s fair because we open up on the same day. It was unfair when we would open up against Arkansas and they would be 5-1 and we’re 0-0. That’s unfair.”

Louisiana-Lafayette enters the season ranked No. 14 by Baseball America and also has a No. 24 ranking by the College Baseball Writers of America.

Last season, the Ragin’ Cajuns finished with the fourth best run total at 478, which was an average of 7.6 per game.

They also have right-handed pitcher Austin Robichaux back this season as a junior, following a 9-2 season, where he had a 3.02 ERA in 16 starts with a WHIP of 1.08.

Schmitz said it would be a challenge for the Eastern pitching staff, but that it will be ready for potent Louisiana-Lafayette offense.

“They’re going to score a lot of runs and we have a good pitching staff, so I think it’s going to be a good test,” Schmitz said.

Part of Eastern’s pitching staff includes two returning starters in Troy Barton and Christian Slazinik.

Both pitchers essentially missed all of last season, as Barton had Tommy John surgery four days before the start of the season, while Slazinik threw one pitch in Eastern’s fourth game of the season — his last of 2013.

Schmitz said Barton has made great progress from the surgery, having no setbacks since the surgery last year to his elbow.

On Monday, Schmitz said Barton did suffer a minor incident during one of the weekend, when he slipped on the mound causing a spasm in his back. Barton is still scheduled to start as of Wednesday, but Schmitz said he would be cautious with the situation.

“I told him that we’re going to be cautious because he has pitched outstanding, so sometimes when your knee or ankle or something isn’t feeling well you tend to compensate, which could put stress on the arm,” he said.

During Barton’s first three starts, he will be limited to around 75 pitches, Schmitz said, in preparation to the Ohio Valley Conference portion of the Eastern schedule.

While the pitching is the strongest aspect for Eastern, Schmitz said, the four-game series in Louisiana would be a strong barometer to see how well the Panther hitters follow the game plan.

Schmitz said he and the rest of the coaching staff have stressed all offseason that batters have to avoid taking fastballs with runners in scoring position and not taking fastballs with two strikes, while also focusing on running hard on the bases.

“These are the key things that we are saying and if we do that this weekend we’ll have a chance of succeeding, but if we don’t my guys know my speech,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you play if you don’t do that you don’t have a good chance of winning.”

Schmitz said that following the game plan would let him know how his team responds to pressure.

“It’s so easy to get away from your game plan, so I want to see how quickly we respond to pressure will say how good we are,” he said. “If we get away from our game plan then that says that the team doesn’t feel strong about it.”

Eastern’s first game starts at 6 p.m. Friday in Lafayette, La.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.