Coming off two more victories against Butler, Eastern continues their busy week with a single game against Western Illinois on Thursday.

The Panthers will have three non-conference games by the time their middle of the week games finally end. Then it will be back to normal with road games within the Ohio Valley Conference when the Panthers travel to Austin Peay for a three game set over the weekend.

However, first Eastern has to focus on Western and get over losing their starting second basemen Kristin Lovering.

For the Panthers to beat Western, their manager Lloydene Searle looks at one aspect that she believes is in her team’s favor. That aspect is pitching depth.

With this year’s rotation, Searle can look to at least three different pitchers to come in and eat innings for her team and be effective while doing so.

The freshmen trio of Andrea Darnell, Brittany Whelan and Heather Hoeschen provide the Panthers with three solid options as they try to get through a busy week.

“When I look at their team they have one pitcher who is responsible for decisions in 21 of their games thus far this season,” Searle said. “For us we can look to at least three different pitchers to go out there and be effective.”

During this week, Eastern used the three non-conference games they had to further boost their momentum.

The Panthers have now won five in a row and will look to extend that before they start playing conference games again.

“So far its been nice because we have stayed at the same emotional level the entire season,” Searle said. “And now that we’re going good, we aren’t too high just like we weren’t too low when we were losing.

“We’ve been able to do that all year and that is why we have been doing better lately.”