The Eastern baseball team lost its third straight non-conference game Tuesday, with a 9-0 rout by Southern Illinois.

The Panthers (8-22) had just five hits against the Salukis (20-13), all coming off of freshman starting pitcher Ryan Terry, who struck out six batters in seven innings of work.

“Guys are swinging at balls out of the zone and curve balls in the dirt,” Eastern head coach Jimmy Schmitz said. “It’s not like (Terry) is their ace.”

Eastern junior pitcher Kenny Firlit got the start for the Panthers and gave up a run in each of the first three innings before being pulled after two and two/thirds innings. Freshman pitcher Mike Manns came in to relieve but brought in a run on a wild pitch before ending the inning.

In the third, Manns gave up another three runs to extend the Saluki lead to six.

Eastern nearly broke onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth when they loaded up the bases with one out, but a strike out and ground out ended the inning.

Ryan Campbell lead the Panthers at the plate collecting two hits.

“There’s not a lot of effort out of these guys,” Schmitz said. “It’s really disappointing because they’re not attacking and not fighting back.”

That’s a stark contrast to the team Schmitz sees on the Ohio Valley Conference weekend games. After taking two out of three from Jacksonville State over the, weekend Eastern appeared to be on a roll but had another midweek let down.

“Midweek wise it seems like these guys are just giving up,” Schmitz said. “We did well in Jacksonville, and it seems like (the players) are just very easily satisfied, and they let their guard down.”

Schmitz said he tries to get his players quality playing time during the midweek games, but that they may not always be responding as hoped.

“I need to fix that,” Schmitz said. “I’m putting people in, and they’re just getting at-bats and not fighting.”

Eastern will have a chance to turn around their midweek luck today when they play St. Xavier (15-15) in a doubleheader at 3 p.m. at Coaches Stadium.