The Eastern baseball team is in 10th place in the Ohio Valley Conference, but sit two games behind Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky for sixth place, which would put the Panthers into the postseason tournament.

Following a series loss at home against Tennessee Tech, Eastern fell to 5-10 in the OVC, while the Golden Eagles remained in third place with an 11-7 conference record.

The Panthers’ next conference opponent, in Southeast Missouri, won two of its three games road games at Austin Peay to improve to an OVC best 15-3. The RedHawks have only lost one of their six series in the OVC conference, which came against Morehead State at home in late March.

Southeast Missouri started its conference schedule, sweeping four of its first five series wins. The RedHawks comfortably sit in first place in the OVC, with four more wins than Jacksonville State, while playing three more games in the conference.

National leaders

Eastern junior Caleb Howell hit .333 (4-for-12) against Tennessee Tech, which dropped his season batting average from .431 to .422.

He entered the weekend series ranked No. 3 in Division I baseball with his .431 average and now ranks No. 7.

Howell’s 57 hits this season also rank him 14th in the nation and No. 3 in the Ohio Valley Conference behind Morehead State’s Brandon Rawe and Tennessee Tech’s Daniel Miles.

Rawe is tied for the second most hits in the country at 62 along with Kennesaw State’s Max Pentecost. Miles is tied for eighth in the nation with 61 hits. The national leader has 63 hits, in North Flordia’s Drew Weeks.

In total, the OVC has five players ranked in the top-50 in the country in hits so far this season.

Eastern pitchers faced two of the best home-run hitters in the nation during the week, as Brandon Thomasson and Zach Stephens both showed off their power Friday, hitting their 11th and 10th home runs of the season, respectively.

Thomasson’s 11 home runs has the senior ranked No. 4 in the country in home runs, while his teammate is tied for fifth overall with three other players. Thomasson is also 10th in the country with a .677 slugging percentage. Kentucky’s A.J. Reed is the leader with a .786 slugging percentage.

Reed is also tied with William and Mary’s Michael Katz for most home runs with 14.

OVC weekly awards

Eastern Kentucky’s Bryan Soloman hit three home runs and drove in 11 runs in five games last week, which earned him Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week.

The designated hitter went 7-for-20, (.350) slugging .850, while scoring six runs and having an on-base percentage of .409 for the Colonels, who went 3-2 during the five game stretch.

On Saturday, against Tennessee-Martin, Soloman hit two home runs and had five RBIs and added a double as he led Eastern Kentucky to an 18-13 win.

Senior Taylor Shields won Ohio Valley Pitcher of the Week, following his one-hit, eight-inning outing Sunday against Murray State, leading Jacksonville State to a 5-1 win.

Shields allowed a double to the second batter he faced in the second inning and surrender two walks all afternoon to the Thoroughbreds. The senior finished with six strikeouts and was charged a run after the only batter he faced in the ninth inning reached on an error and later scored for Murray State’s lone run.

The senior improved to 4-3 this season.

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