Eastern will travel down to challenge the University of Tennessee at Martin Friday in a three-game series.

Tennessee Martin (13-16, 4-2) is Eastern’s (5-20, 0-3) second Conference opponent this season.

Eastern will attempt to break an 11-game losing streak. The team’s last win was in the Samford Tournament against Alabama A&M.

Last weekend, Eastern faced its first OVC rival, Tennessee Tech, in another three-game series. Eastern lost all three games to Tech.

Eastern lost a doubleheader to University of Illinois Wednesday after the second game went into extra innings.

Head coach Lloydene Searle said they have the wheels turning now despite the losses.

Searle said they are aware Tennessee Martin beat Eastern Kentucky recently. Eastern Kentucky was ranked No. 1 in the coaches’ preseason poll.

“We are not going to look at the outcome; we are not going to focus on wins or losses. We are going to look at what we are doing in the game,” Searle said.

Searle said even though the Panthers were swept by Tennessee Tech over the weekend, they really picked it up Wednesday in the doubleheader against the University of Illinois.

“I told the team it was win, lose or draw with Illinois, (and) we had to get opportunities,” Searle said.

In 2002, Eastern was able to go 3-2 against Tennessee-Martin and knocked the team out of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament last year.

Senior pitcher Kristen Becker and junior pitcher Trish Sanders pitched in those four games against Tennessee-Martin in the previous year.

Searle said, she was pleased with her pitcher’s performances in the game against Illinois.

Eastern will need the other pitchers to fill in for Sanders, who is currently out with an injured ankle.

“We really needed them with Sanders out with her broken ankle. They performed well,” Searle said. “They played the game how it should be played- with effort and attitude- they took control of the controllables.”

Searle said the effort of the team outstanding and she hopes they take that to Tennessee-Martin.

“We really played well for two games, to go seven innings without a score and then they score and then we score to tie it up, we didn’t go away,” Searle said. “We fought through that whole game then we lost. We could have just given up, but we fought through the second game.”