The Panthers baseball team lost their final game of a three-game series to Ole Miss 18-10 Sunday.

The loss adds to Eastern’s losing streak, which is now at five, but head coach Jim Schmitz said he isn’t worried.

Schmitz said some teams look to play weaker competition early in the season to try and get a couple wins under their belts, but that’s not what Eastern is all about.

“We play quality schools early in the season to make us better heading into conference play,” Schmitz said.

The Panthers found themselves down 14-1 heading into the top of the fourth inning. Being down so big so early, many teams would have thrown in the towel but the Panthers did just the opposite. They kept their heads in the game and kept swinging the bats to put runs on the board.

“One of the things that excites me about this team is that they have a little fight in them,” Schmitz said. “We stayed aggressive offensively. We were tough coming back and hitting.”

Ryan Campbell stood out going 4-5 with a run batted in and three runs scored.

Offense was not the problem as the Panthers were able to get 16 hits in the game. The problem came in the form of six errors, which accounted for four unearned runs.

Schmitz said most innings last about seven to eight minutes but on Sunday some of the innings lasted 30 minutes.

“When innings take that long it’s easy to lose focus,” Schmitz said. “Most of the errors were more mental than physical.”

The Panthers pitching was also lacking the necessities to win the last game of the series as Chris Vaculik, Ted Juske, Brian Long and Alex Chapple combined to give up 14 runs to the Rebels.

In his first collegiate start, Vaculik gave up five runs and walked three batters in the first inning. Vaculik was replaced in the second.

“We had to get Vaculik out there,” Schmitz said. “It’s common to see those kind of freshman jitters.”

There was one bright spot in the pitching staff. Andy Kuntz came on and gave the Panthers two scoreless innings, striking out two and walking none.

Stephen Head started the game for the Rebels going four innings with five strikeouts and no walks.

Head not only pitched well enough to earn the win against the Panthers, he also hit, driving in four runs.

Schmitz said Head was the freshman player of the year last year and said he had his pitchers pitch around him when he could’ve hurt the Panthers.

“You just kind of watch and appreciate how easy he swings the bat,” Schmitz said.

This five game losing streak isn’t something the Panthers talk about often. Schmitz stresses to his team only what they can improve on themselves.

The Panthers will try to better their record against Southern Mississippi in a three-game series March 12-14.

Eastern will begin conference play on March 27 and 28 when they play Tennessee Martin in a three game series at Coaches Stadium.