The Eastern baseball team will return home for a series against Ohio Valley Conference opponent Southeast Missouri this weekend.

The Panthers (5-23) only have two wins in OVC, which puts them in the second to last spot, while the Redhawks are tied for fourth with a 6-6 conference record with a 15-12 overall record.

Eastern fell 12-1 against Saint Louis Tuesday but still showed promise with its bats.

Sophomore Jimmy Govern showed up going 3-4, driving in the lone run for the Panthers.

Govern leads the team with a .345 batting average and is the only one hitting above the .300 mark and has been tearing it up in his last eight games. In that span he has gone 18-32 and has an on-base percentage of .588.

Junior Andrew Curran was the only other Panther to have more than one hit against the Billikens going 2-3.

Junior Matt Albert has gotten on base in 15 straight games. Albert ranks third in OVC in homerun with 10 and is seventh in slugging percentage and RBIs with .678 and 34 respectively.

Friday’s probable starter is redshirt junior Jake Haberer. Haberer is 0-1 on the season and has an ERA of 4.43 and has 26 strikeouts.

For Saturday, the Panthers will bring senior Michael McCormick to the mound. McCormick has yet to get a win this season as his 0-4 record in seven games boasts a 6.31 ERA.

For the Redhawks, the game one starter is OVC pitcher of the week Clay Chandler.

This is his fourth time receiving this award. Chandler pitched seven scoreless innings against Austin Peay and only gave up two hits.

For the week, Chandler struck out eight hitters and only had one walk in 8 2/3 innings and got a save out of the bullpen against Missouri.

Not only has the pitching been good for the Redhawks, but on the hitting side as well. Southeast Missouri have four players with an on-base streak of double-digits. Clayton Evans has reached base safely in a career high 22 games. Right behind him is Chris Osborne with 21, followed by Connor Basler and Dan Holst with 18 and 15 respectively.

The Redhawks own the all-time series against the Panthers 37-32. Fridays game starts at 3 p.m. Saturday and1 p.m. Sunday.

Tyler McCluskey can be reached at 581-2812 or at trmccluskey@eiu.edu