Eastern dropped their fifth straight game this weekend when they were swept by Ohio Valley Conference foe Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

On Saturday, the Panthers (9-29, 6-9 Ohio Valley Conference) dropped the first game 9-4 and the second game 7-2.

In game one, Eastern threw right-hander Mike Budde and the sophomore gave up nine runs, three unearned, before being relieved in the fourth.

Budde started in place of normal No. 1 starter Kyle Widegren to try and switch things up for his team, Eastern head coach Jimmy Schmitz said.

In the fifth, the Eastern pitching staff settled down, allowing just three more hits the rest of the game.

However, the early Redhawk lead was too much for the Panthers to overcome and Eastern’s seventh inning rally fell short.

Eastern did collect 13 hits in the game, and three Panthers had multi-hit games.

“You have to hit and pitch in clutch situation,” Schmitz said. “We didn’t do that today, and (SEMO) did.”

In game two, Eastern threw senior Ted Juske.

SEMO struck early and often, putting up two runs in the first and third inning.

The Panthers finally got the board in the fourth when they scored one run but couldn’t capitalize with the bases loaded and left three runners stranded in the inning.

Juske would be knocked out in the next inning, allowing seven hits and six runs in four innings.

In the last game of the series, Eastern sent senior Kyle Widegren to the mound and the Redhawks got to him like the first two starters.

Widegren started off strong shutting out SEMO and allowing Eastern to take its only lead of the series, 1-0 after two innings.

But the Redhawks hit Widegren for three runs in the third. SEMO took two more runs off the Panther starter before he was pulled in the fifth as Eastern trailed 5-1.

Panther sophomore Joe Hernandez hit a home run in the eighth inning to bring the Panthers within two runs, but the Panthers couldn’t plate anyone else and lost 5-3.

“There’s no bright side to any of this,” Schmitz said. “We’ve tried to change things to see what works, and we still have some buttons to push to see what does.”

Eastern travels up Interstate 57 to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The Panthers return home Wednesday at 3 p.m. to take on another in-state rival, Illinois State.