After a loss to Tennessee-Martin Wedneday, Belmont will look to stop first place Eastern this weekend when the Panthers travel to Kentucky to take on the Bruins in a non-conference action.

Although the Bruins are 27-21 this season, they have lost 10 of their last 13 games and are staggering into this weekend’s series with the Panthers.

“To be honest we aren’t playing very good right now,” Belmont manager Dave Jarvis said. “We’ve lost a lot of games lately and that has hurt us. We are a baseball enigma right now and we just aren’t playing as well as we should be.”

One of the problems that Jarvis says his team has is the inability to put together a complete game in a long time.

“One game we will pitch pretty well, and the bats won’t come through for us and we will lose 3-2 or 2-1,” Jarvis said. “And then the next game we will hit the heck out of the ball, and we won’t pitch very well and lose 10-7.

“So with games like that, it has been real tough to be a consistent ball club.”

One of the players that has been consistent for Jarvis Bruins has been freshman Dan Soukoup.The first baseman is

hitting .343 with two home runs this season.

“I look forward to not only what Dan has done for us on the field, but what Dan has done off the field has been equally as important.” Jarvis said.

Although Belmont has not hit a lot of home runs this season, catcher Eric Fruechtemeyer has come up with seven bombs this year.

“We don’t hit a lot of homers as a team, but Eric has been a guy who has hit in the middle of the line-up for us all season long, and has some pop in his bat,” Jarvis said.

One of the other reasons that the Bruins have been able to win 27 games this season has been the performance of their bullpen.

Two freshmen have led Belmont out of the pen in lefthander Alex Renes and righty Chris McKee.

McKee, who despite having a 4.18 ERA, has five wins and only two losses.

“Chris is a local kid that is big and strong,” Jarvis said. “He really comes out and shuts the door on our opponents in some tough situations.”

Renes is 4-3 on the season with a 3.17 ERA. He also has accumulated three saves and opponents are hitting just .239 against him.

“Alex is a lefty who is another guy we can count on late in the game,” Jarvis said. “The great thing about him is that he is has that bulldog mentality.”