The Eastern baseball team exited its series against Belmont in a position to leap over another Ohio Valley Conference foe in its quest to make it back to the postseason tournament.

Following an 11-2 loss against Saint Louis Tuesday, the Panthers head to Eastern Kentucky, where the Colonels await with a 10-11 OVC record, which has them as the sixth and final team qualified for the conference tournament.

After the Panthers won two games at home against Belmont, with the series ending in a 5-5 tie, Eastern pushed its conference record to 8-12-1, tied for ninth in the standings.

But with a series win, Eastern would get one step closer to its goal.

Eastern coach Jim Schmitz said before the Belmont series began that the Panthers needed to win every series left on its schedule, with the goal of sweeping Tennessee-Martin to end the season.

Eastern checked Belmont off its list and enter the Eastern Kentucky series more than confident than ever.

“It’s just the way they’re coming to practice and working on different things and I’m not saying they weren’t focused earlier, but a couple of weeks ago I went with a set lineup and everyone knows where they’re going to play,” Schmitz said. “There are no, what ifs.”

Eastern heads to Richmond, Ky., where the Colonels have a 7-8 home record this season. Meanwhile, the Panthers enter the weekend series with a 5-7 road record in the OVC.

The Colonels are coming off a series loss at Austin Peay, where Eastern Kentucky avoided the sweep by winning 7-6 Sunday.

Schmitz said one of the assets for Eastern Kentucky is its bullpen. The Colonels are 10-4 after being tied or ahead in OVC games this season.

“Their bullpen is kind of their strength, so we have to have the lead going into the mid to late innings and that’s going to be the key here,” Schmitz said.

Although the Colonels’ bullpen has not surrendered many leads in the OVC this season, its has not been able to protect leads lately, as three of the Colonels’ last four conference losses have come as a result of the opposing team scoring in the final three innings to win.

Eastern was able to jump on Belmont starters in its last series, knocking out the Bruins first two pitchers in the third inning in game one and two, respectively.

As far as the Eastern pitching staff goes for this series, Schmitz said locating the fastball against Eastern Kentucky would be more important than against any team the Panthers play this season.

“Our pitchers have to get that fastball over and locate it,” Schmitz said. “They can really, really, really jump on that fastball and if you locate it, then the guy is out. We can’t go in a position where we have to throw breaking balls, which will open their running game.”

Eastern Kentucky has 26 stolen bases this season in the OVC, which is fifth in the conference, but the Panthers have allowed the most stolen bases at 36 in conference play.

Eastern has been consistent as of late offensively in conference action, scoring at least five runs in each of its last six OVC games. As a team the Panthers are hitting .301 in conference games and have scored 142 runs, which are fourth and fifth in the OVC, respectively.

“They’re getting it – if it’s a walk we need, or if it’s not trying to do too much against a lefty and go the other way – they seem to be understanding what they’re capable of doing individually,” Schmitz said of the Eastern offense.

The three-game series begins at 6 p.m. Friday at the Turkey Hughes Field in Richmond, Ky.

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

The Eastern baseball team exited its series against Belmont in a position to leap over another Ohio Valley Conference foe in its quest to make it back to the postseason tournament.

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