The Eastern baseball team will have another mid-week matchup on Tuesday against non-conference team Butler (22-14, 2-4).

The Panthers (8-27, 4-11) took one game in their series against Belmont over the past weekend.

Junior Joe Duncan had a good showing in game three going 1-4 with a home run and scoring two runs which puts his batting average to .273 on the season. He also stole two bases for his 11th on the year. Duncan is tied for first in the Ohio Valley Conference for stolen bases. Duncan has 37 stolen bases in his career, that puts him tied for eighth on the all-time list for the Panthers.

The probable starter for Eastern is senior Alex Cain. Cain has made 11 appearances so far this season with no wins or losses. He has 12 strikeouts on the season that goes along with a 5.72 ERA and opposing batters are hitting .287 against him. The projected starter for the Bulldogs is Danny Pobereyko. He is 2-0 on the year in nine games with an impressive 1.54 ERA and only six strikeouts in 11.2 innings of work, this will be his first career start.

Junior Matt Albert hit his 12th home run on the season in game three against Belmont. Albert ranks 4th in the OVC in that stat, but also ranks seventh in slugging percentage with .661. Albert is two home runs shy of getting on the top-10 list for Eastern. To go along with his 12 home runs, Albert is hitting .278 and leads the team in RBI’s with 37.

As for the Bulldogs, they are coming off of getting swept by No. 22 St. John’s at home over the weekend. After they face Eastern, they will head to Indiana to take on Indiana before returning to Big East action against Xavier this weekend.

Michael Hartnagel leads the team in batting average having a high .411. The next closest on the team is Jordan Lucio with .292. Hartnagel has 51 hits going into the game, the school record is at 81 and Butler still has 16 games left on the season. He also leads the team in doubles with 12 and runs scored with 31, and is second on the team with 20 RBI’s. The only two players on the team to play in every game is Hatnagel and Tyler Houston.

The game is at Bulldog Park in Indianapolis at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The Panthers take on Lindenwood-Belleville (25-19, 12-12), on Wednesday at Coaches Stadium at 4 p.m.

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