Leading a baseball team’s offense is not an easy thing to do, especially for a sophomore.

But sophomore third baseman Zach Borenstein is taking this leadership role in stride, coming off last week’s performance hitting 7-for-14 with three home runs and six RBIs.

Last season, the Buffalo Grove native was a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and on the Ohio Valley Conference All-Freshman Team. However, with players like Jordan Kreke, Zach Skidmore and Brett Nommensen leading the attack, Borenstein did not have to lead.

Now that all these players are gone, he has no choice but to step out. Borenstein leads the Panthers in home runs (9), RBIs (34), hits (51) and slugging percentage (.563).

Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said his top hitter has some ups and downs like any other player, like when Borenstein went 1-for-9 and no RBIs.

“He was very frustrated after the Tennessee Tech weekend when he was swinging at a lot of balls,” Schmitz said. “He has been asked to be the guy who carries us and that’s a lot of pressure.

You tend to want to do too much. He had some good counts (against Murray State) and got some good pitches and did a great job getting quality at bats.”

It all began against Illinois April 21 at Grimes Field in Mattoon. In the bottom of the seventh, the game was tied 4-4. Borenstein faced Illini senior pitcher Mike Sterk (3-0, 4.08 ERA).

“I was ahead in the count and he threw me a fastball, so I hit a home run,” Borenstein said.

More importantly, the 5-11, 190 sophomore had a dominant performance against Murray State. With Eastern 4-8 and in dead last in league standings, Borenstein and the Panthers had to sweep the series to get back in the conference race.

Saturday’s doubleheader was rained out, so Sunday was going to be a doubleheader with both games being seven inning affairs.

Borenstein had four hits in game one, going 4-for-5 which tied his career high, and was 6-for-10 with five RBIs overall.

In game one, Borenstein had a two-run blast in the seventh inning off Racer senior pitcher Matt McGaha (2-1, 4.32 ERA) for an 8-4 lead with senior first baseman Alex Gee along for the ride. That would prove vital as Eastern junior ace Josh Muller (1-1, 4.54 ERA) allowed two Murray State runs in the seventh for a

8-6 win.

The second game had him launch the ball off Racer Jake Donze (5-5, 5.85 ERA) for a quick 2-0 lead. Eastern won that game 7-4.

“I just felt good at the plate I guess,” Borenstein said. “They made bad pitches and I took advantage of them.”

In the fourth inning of game one, Borenstein singled home junior center fielder Matt Kucharski with two outs to cut Eastern’s deficit to 4-3 off Chris Craycraft (5-3, 4.69 ERA), the Preseason OVC co-Pitcher of the Year.

Freshman pitcher Troy Barton (1-4, 5.87 ERA) was impressed with Borenstein’s performance against the Racers when the Panthers needed these wins.

“It’s not secret; he’s probably our best hitter,” Barton said. “When you are the best hitter, there is a lot of pressure on him, and he was huge last week. He produced and has been producing most of the year. If he keeps hitting like that in conference, I think we will be fine.”

One area that Borenstein has been struggling with has been pitch selection. Schmitz has been working with Borenstein on his approach at the plate.

“The key thing is we talked to him about how other teams are pitching around him and he hasn’t been selective,” Schmitz said. “He is swinging at bad pitches and we can’t do a whole lot to change his swing, but he needed to do a better job swinging at balls that were strikes.”

Schmitz said the team asks him to produce and drive in big runs.

“He’s just got to do a better job getting a good pitch to hit,” Schmitz said. “He is still only a sophomore, so he is learning about getting a good pitch to hit and getting a strike. He was able to get certain pitches during the Murray weekend and had gotten OK counts.”

Borenstein said he would have to be careful to not swing at pitches out of the strike zone the rest of the season and hopes to lead his team to an OVC tournament championship.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected]