Junior outfielder Keiji Szalo is in his first season with the Eastern baseball team, but the Black Hawk College transfer has already made an impact for the Panthers, helping lead their offense.

The 6-foot-3, 225 lb. Szalo is leading the team in home runs (5), doubles (6), RBIs (21) and total bases (43). Szalo’s .467 slugging percentage is also third best on the team. When recruiting Szalo, Eastern knew it was looking for a solid cleanup hitter.

“We knew we needed to fill a spot with a power-type hitter,” Eastern assistant coach Sean Lyons said. “He’s done a nice job for us in RBI situations, producing and driving in runs.”

At the beginning of the season, Eastern head coach Jimmy Schmitz said he was hoping that having another run producer like Szalo on the team would prevent teams from isolating sophomore third baseman Ryan Campbell. Campbell led the team in nearly every offensive category last season, and having a hitter like Szalo behind him will prevent teams from pitching around Campbell.

Szalo says that in his first year with the Panthers he feels like he’s fitting right in with the team.

“This is a young team, and being a junior college transfer I can help out the younger players,” Szalo said.

When Szalo first came to Charleston he was a corner infielder, the same positions he played at Black Hawk. Eastern head coach Jimmy Schmitz decided to move Szalo to the outfield to help fill some shortages there, and Szalo has made a relatively smooth adjustment to the outfield this year, committing four errors in 25 games.

“I had never really played outfield before,” Szalo said. “It’s taken some time to adjust but I like the challenge.”

Despite Szalo’s success at driving in runs, he knows he needs to improve his .239 average and team-leading 22 strikeouts.

“I’m struggling a little bit, and I could do better. I need to work on my pitch selection so I can get more quality at-bats,” Szalo said. “I’m chasing too many pitches out of the strike zone.”

Lyons said that it’s not an uncommon problem that Szalo is facing.

“It goes for Szalo, and for all of us, that we need to make sure we focus in on every at bat,” Lyons said. “We need to look for good pitches to hit.”