The Eastern baseball team looks to spell a recent cold streak in an OVC matchup Friday with Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. for the start of a three-game series.

The Panthers (16-17, 8-7 OVC) have hovered around the .500 mark for a couple weeks now, but they fell below that mark after dropping both games of a doubleheader against Belmont last weekend and losing against Southern Illinois Tuesday.

Junior Michael YaSenka takes the mound for Eastern Friday, and the right-hander enters the contest with an even 3-3 record on the year with a 4.64 ERA.

YaSenka leads the team with 54.1 innings pitched and has held batters to just a .252 average this season.

For the Colonels, senior Logan Teague takes the mound Friday, but his campaign has not been quite as successful.

The right-hander Teague holds a 6.75 ERA on the year and has recorded a starter-low 23 strikeouts in 37.1 innings pitched.

Senior Jimmy Govern hopes to capitalize on that, as he enters the series batting .341 this season with a .587 slugging percentage as well.

Govern won’t be the only Panther licking his chops at the matchup as junior Christian Pena has ballooned his batting average on the year to .333 with 22 RBIs on top of that.

After the Friday slate, Eastern has a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday when senior Spenser Dexter enters with a 3-2 record with a 4.30 ERA as he takes the ball.

Dexter faces off with Colonel senior Kaven Brown who has been Eastern Kentucky’s ace on the hill this season.

Brown has amassed a 7-1 record with a 2.44 ERA in eight starts this year.

Brown also comes in averaging nearly a strikeout an inning, with 51.2 innings pitched and 49 Ks while giving up just 14 earned runs this season.

To close out the weekend, junior Foster Anshutz gets the nod in the second game of the doubleheader.

Anshutz has managed a 3.48 ERA and five wins in eight appearances while keeping batters to just a .231 average this season.

Against Anshutz for Eastern Kentucky is junior left-hander Brennan Kelly who enters the series with a 5.21 ERA and two wins in eight games.

After the weekend series, the Panthers stay home for a single game matchup-with Chicago State on Tuesday before hitting the road for another OVC series against Morehead State starting Thursday.

Oscar Rzodkiewicz can be reached at 581-2812 or orrzodkiewicz@eiu.edu