The Eastern athletics department announced Friday that the Eastern baseball team will travel to Butler for a single game on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. due to inclement weather in the area.

The Panthers were originally scheduled for a doubleheader on Saturday but that has been moved to Sunday at Coaches Stadium with the first game slated to begin at 12:00 p.m.

The Panthers are on an Ohio Valley Conference bye week as they are currently tied for fifth place in the standings with SIUE. The Panthers are 1-2 in conference play and 14-7 overall.

Being on the road will be anything but unfamiliar to the Panthers as they started out the 2023 seasons with 20 straight road games. On the road, the Panthers are 13-7 and that has earned them the first place in the NCAA for road wins.

The Panthers are coming off a 24-7 home opener win over Illinois Wesleyan. They scored 17 runs in the bottom of the first inning and that shows in the OVC as they are first in team hitting percentage with a .290 percent.

They also have a .407 on-base percentage, which ranks first in the OVC and 55th in the NCAA. Their 156 strikeouts as a team is first in the OVC and they are second in walks with 125, which ranks 69th in the NCAA.

At the mound, the Panthers have a 5.32 ERA as team, which ranks third in the OVC. They are second in the OVC in amount of runs allowed with 125.

Grant Lashure leads the Panthers with a .383 batting average. Chris Worecester is second with a .321 batting average and Chris Gober is third with a .318 batting average.

Gober leads the team with 28 hits and is second on the team with five home runs.

On the mound, the Panthers have relied on Ky Matthews-Hampton. Hampton is 4-0 on the season, which leads the Panthers and ties for 27th in the NCAA.

Hampton’s ERA is 2.34, which is second in the OVC. He has allowed nine runs this season and has walked eight.

The Panthers have an all time record of 7-6 against the Bulldogs. The Panthers have lost three of the last four games against the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs are 5-19 overall on the season. They are hitting .207 percent as a team and the lead the Big East with nine triples.

Cory Bosecker is starting on the mound on Saturday and he is 0-4 on the season with a 5.46 ERA. He has given up 28 runs, 18 of them being earned runs.

Autumn Schulz can be reached at 581-2812 or acschulz@eiu.edu