The Panther baseball team will play at least one baseball game this weekend, although they are scheduled to play three.

Head baseball coach Jim Schmitz said the chances of playing all three of the scheduled games with Ohio Valley Conference opponent Tennessee-Martin at Coaches’ stadium aren’t good.

“We were trying to move the games to a Saturday-Sunday series,” he said, “But the OVC officials said you have to get permission from both teams to do that and Tennessee-Martin doesn’t want to do that. We’re talking Code Red here; we have to push these games back because the rain after the snow we have had is not helping the process.”

Schmitz said the Panthers’ new field is having some draining problems making the chances of Eastern starting Friday’s doubleheader virtually impossible.

“We’ll be hard pressed to start the game at 2 p.m.,” he said Thursday afternoon. “Right now there’s not a whole lot we can do we’re just waiting for the rain to go away.”

The 1 p.m. scheduled start time of Saturday’s game may also change depending on the condition of the field.

Tennessee Martin brings plenty of confidence and a 9-13 overall record and a 2-1 mark in the OVC after winning two of three games against defending OVC Tournament champion Tennessee Tech last weekend.

The Skyhawks’ pitching staff is in the middle of the pack of the league with a 6.10 ERA, but it features two of the best starting pitchers in the conference.

Junior T.J. Allen has a 2.16 ERA but hasn’t gotten much run support this season as he carries a 3-3 record.

He leads the league in complete games with three.

Senior Brad Meadows is 3-1 with a 2.78 ERA.

Tennessee-Martin has already won more games so far this season than it did last year.

“Martin has really done a nice job recruiting,” Schmitz said. “They’ve turned things around. If we play well against them we’ll come out on top. If not, we can be sitting in a very uncomfortable situation. We’ve got to be ready to play.”

The Panthers will try to counter the strong pitching with an offense that is on the rise.

Eastern (5-11, 1-2) produced 14 runs in its last game (Sunday’s 14-12 win over Eastern Kentucky) and its top four batters in the batting order are hitting .342. ‘OVC Player of the Week’ and Panther leadoff man Pete Pirman leads the team in hitting.

The senior outfielder is ranked No. 5 in the OVC in hitting with a .406 batting average.

Eastern is batting .260 as a team, eighth-best in the league. The Skyhawks are ranked No. 7 in that category with a .267 mark. The Panthers’ 5.11 ERA is the league’s best in that category.