The Panther baseball team expected to kick off a three-game series with the Murray State Thoroughbreds at 1 p.m. on Saturday. But somebody let a hose douse the field with water overnight.

Not only did they let the hose run, but they threw the batting cage in the Campus Pond.

“Right when we got into the locker room on Saturday morning coach told us to get our shorts on and we all had some kind of idea of what was going on at that point,” starting pitcher Jared Marshal said.

The first game of the series finally began at 3 p.m. Saturday. The field looked a little moist in certain areas, but it was playable.

The wind was blowing out to right center. The wind may have had something to do with the fact the two teams combined to hit seven home runs as Murray State took the first game 11-7. Bret Pignatiello hit his 30th career blast, which came right after Kyle Haines’ first home run of the game.

Damon White pitched the first game and looked to be cruising, but hit a bump in the road in the top of the second inning, in the form of a two run home run by Alex Stewart. After White gave up the homerun, he settled down and struck out seven batters. He fell apart when he fielded a routine grounder then threw the ball over the first baseman’s head. He then walked two batters in a row to load the bases.

“You can’t win games by walking batters,” Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said.

White was pulled in the top of the fifth after giving up a lead off base hit to Stewart. Micah Gray came in and pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

“It’s been a part of our team,” Schmitz said. “If we give them a big inning, we’re going to lose a lot of games.”

White’s counterpart, Kyle Perry, was not to be outdone. Perry struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings pitched. He was pulled in the bottom of the seventh after Kyle Haines hit his second homerun to tie the game at seven.

Murray State brought in Gordon Dugan, and he did not let up a run in the final 2 1/3 innings.

The score stayed tied at seven until the top of the ninth inning when Murray State scored four runs with two outs. The rally started when Nathan Stone walked Alex Stewart. It seemed as though Stewart would be stranded at first after a quick two outs. That would prove to be a fallacy as Garner Byars chopped a ball into the ground then beat out the play at first with a head first slide.

That opened the floodgates for the Thoroughbreds. After Byars’ infield hit Stone ran into some problems. He walked Charlie Ward, gave up a two-run single to Derrick Newton, threw a wild pitch and in the course of the inning gave up four runs.

Dugan earned the win while Stone took the loss for Eastern.

“We gave them way too many chances,” Schmitz said.

Sunday was a new day and the Panthers were looking to redeem themselves. Because of the Saturday morning surprise, the double header was moved to Sunday. The first game the Panthers dropped a close one 4-2. Jesse Rhoades earned the win for Murray State and Matt Tyson got the loss for the Panthers.

The Panthers lost the first two games of the series and needed to salvage the third and final game.

The Panthers would do just that behind the arm of starting pitcher Jared Marshall. Marshall started for the Panthers and Craig Ringwald got the ball for the Thoroughbreds.

Marshall threw a complete game giving up one run on two hits and he got the run support he needed to come out with 5-1 victory.

“This is a key win,” said Marshall. “You never want to get swept on your home field. Picking up a win on Sunday is pretty important.”

Schmitz was happy with the performance of his third pitcher in the rotation.

“This is two weeks in a row now he’s (Marshall) pitched extremely well,” Schmitz said. “He’s been real impressive.”

The Panthers got two of their runs in the form of a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning of the bat of Kirk Walters.

“It was a curve ball down and in,” Walters said. “The wind was blowing in a little bit, but I got enough of it to get it out.”

Walters also added an RBI single to his day. Chris Uhle and Kyle Haines batted in the other two Panther runs.

The only run the Thoroughbreds got came in the top of the third inning when Marshall walked Byars and gave up back-to-back hits to Charlie Ward and Ike Bridwell. After the third Marshall cruised to earn the victory while Ringwald got the loss for the Thoroughbreds.