The Eastern baseball team is 4-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference and will start a three-game series against Tennessee Tech starting Friday.

Nearly a year ago, the Panthers were 3-8 in the OVC before they played Tennessee Tech, but this year is different Eastern coach Jim Schmitz said.

“The difference is last year we had so many pieces to the puzzle that we had no clue how it was going to work,” Schmitz said. “You know, what coach Anderson did with pitching last year was miraculous.”

In 2013, Eastern started 0-8 in conference play, before winning its first OVC series, which came in a three-game sweep over Murray State.

After a 2-7 start this season in the OVC, the Panthers won two of three games over Murray State, getting their first conference series victory.

Unlike last season, the pieces Eastern has are set and Schmitz is comfortable and confident going forward.

“Now, we’ve turned it around, we’re 4-8 and we feel real good about who is in the lineup, middle of the lineup guys like Demetre (Taylor) and (Brant) Valach are knocking them in, the bullpen with Troy (Barton) at the end is what we want,” Schmitz said.

The Eastern offense has averaged 8.3 runs per game in its last six OVC games, but has only been able to win two of those games.

The problem was the pitching against Jacksonville State, when the Panthers allowed 39 runs to the Gamecocks.

Schmitz said he saw improvement against Murray State, as he put senior Joe Greenfield in the starting rotation permanently.

Also, junior Matt Borens, although allowing five earned runs to Murray State in the series opener, has put the Panthers in a position to win games, Schmitz said.

“He’s been giving us a chance to win and that’s all you ask for,” Schmitz said. “At the beginning of the year I was expecting Matt to pitch shutouts every game and now I’m looking at it this way. He’s giving us a chance to win every Friday.”

Borens is 1-2 this season with a 4.30 ERA and in his eight starts, Eastern has a 4-4 record.

Following a couple of rough outings from the bullpen, Greenfield picked up his fourth win of the season Sunday. Schmitz said the senior was pitching with more confidence, which could only bode well for the Panthers for the rest of the season.

Sophomore Jake Johansmeier had four straight stats in which he could not get to the sixth inning for the Panthers, but Saturday he threw his best start of the season, Schmitz said.

“Jake threw phenomenal – I think better than what he threw against Lafayette, I really mean that,” Schmitz said. “He was commanding the fastball, didn’t have to go to the breaking ball as much.”

Tennessee Tech enters the weekend set with a 26-9 overall record, which is the best in the OVC. In conference play, though, the Golden Eagles are 9-6, which is good enough for third place.

Schmitz said he is well aware of how good Tennessee Tech is, as the Golden Eagles are coming off a 40-17 season.

“Tech is a really good program and they were picked to win (the OVC) this year, but as you start to look at the league, you know, Murray goes to Peay and sweeps them, then Peay goes to Tech and takes two out of three, so we feel it’s simple as try to take two out of three,” Schmitz said.

Eastern has won three of its last four games and is looking to continue its momentum with its pitching staff.

“Momentum, as I say all the time, starts with the pitching staff and they seem to really have it, so we’re in a good position,” Schmitz said.

Tennessee Tech has split its last two series in the OVC, beating Southern Illinois-Edwardsville two out of three and then losing a three-game series to Austin Peay at home.

Eastern will welcome the Golden Eagles for the start of their series that will begin at 3 p.m. Friday at Coaches Stadium. Saturday’s and Sunday’s games start at 1 p.m.

“We’re not trying to find ourselves, as we were going up against Murray we did,” Schmitz said. “Now, we feel really confident going into this weekend.”

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