The Panther baseball team is coming off a huge weekend as they were able to finish a three-game sweep of Murray State on Sunday.

“I just think the lineup we’re putting out there has a chance to win all the time,” Eastern head coach Jimmy Schmitz said.

On Tuesday Eastern will look to continue their winning ways against the Western Illinois Leathernecks.

“The key thing this weekend was our situational hitting,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz compared the Panther hitting to a clutch game-winning shot in basketball. He said in order to feel comfortable in those clutch situations in basketball, a player first has to be put into that situation time and time again. Schmitz said this past weekend the Panthers found themselves with runners on and two outs quite a few times but Eastern rose to those occasions and got the hits they needed to get.

The Panthers will look to continue hitting as the banged-up Leathernecks will be without three of their big bats when they come to Charleston Tuesday.

Right fielder Clint Buchen, center fielder Blake Schultz and first baseman Aaron Milliken all missed the series against Illinois-Chicago for one reason or another. However, the Leathernecks still managed to upset the Flames once in their three game series this past weekend.

“Not having are big bats and beating UIC was big for us,” Western head coach Stan Hyman said. “Right now we’re just trying to get healthy for the start of our conference season.”

Buchen has started 28 of the Leathernecks 31 games thus far and is batting .301 with 12 runs batted in and two homeruns.

Shultz was last year’s Mid-Continent Conference rookie of the year and carries a .298 batting average in 23 games with 12 RBI and two homeruns as well.

Milliken has started 22 games batting .280 with 15 RBI and two homeruns.

Hyman said with those three out Kyle Malan and Ryan Cougill have really kept the offense together.

“They’ve held the offense together but we’re searching for others to step up,” Hyman said.

Even without their three big bats out, Schmiz said he is impressed with Hyman’s squad.

“I’m impressed with their talent,” Schmitz said. “They’ve got some guys we were looking at.”

The Leathernecks and the Panthers have similar records to this point 12-21 and 7-17 respectively and they have played similar schedules.

“Records don’t mean anything at this point,” Hyman said. “I know about the competition they play and I expect Eastern to be as solid as ever.”

The competition Eastern has played this year includes Ole Miss, Southern Mississippi, South Alabama and Arkansas State.

“I have a lot of respect for coach Schmitz and Eastern baseball,” Hyman said. “They handed it to us the last couple of years.”

Even though Hyman has much respect for Eastern, the Leathernecks will go into the game with the same mindset as any other mid-week non-conference game.

“We respect Eastern and know it will be a tough game,” Hyman said.