Eastern baseball is set to open its Ohio Valley Conference schedule tomorrow with a double header against the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky.

The Panthers closed their pre-conference schedule Thursday as they lost to Southern Illinois 7-4 in a rough game that featured three errors by each team.

“We all have lessons in life,” Schmitz said. “Hopefully this is a lesson that really kicks us into gear. I’d rather it happen (last Wednesday) and not this weekend.”

The game with Southern was preceded by a tribute to former Panther and Saluki coach Dan Callahan, and a framed jersey was presented to Coach Callahan’s widow.

Panther head coach Jim Schmitz had nothing but good things to say about coach Callahan, who was the head coach Schmitz took over for.

“When I took over here, he was it,” Schmitz said. “He was a good family man, he was phenomenal to me. Hopefully we made her (Coach Callahan’s widow, Stacy) feel good. That’s what it’s all about, doing the right thing. I just thought that was the right thing to do.”

Saturday’s forecast has a high temperature of 42 degrees with a 50 percent chance of afternoon showers, according to www.weather.com, and Coach Schmitz said the biggest issue with the weather in the Panthers’ OVC opener will be the bench players and relief pitchers staying loose and warm in the cold.

“That’s hard to do, when you’re cold and you’ve got to be called to come in (to play), that’s a hard deal,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz said the game Wednesday was a bit of a wake up call to his team, as only three starters played the entire game. Schmitz added that everyone who came out of the game was pulled for a reason beyond just making an out or an error.

Schmitz said he will be adjusting the starting lineup over the weekend to play a team that will be better on defense since the Panthers have not been scoring a whole lot of runs.

“We’re just trying to get a lineup that will allow us to play good defense,” Schmitz said. “We know we’re not scoring, so we want to play pretty good defense to let (red-shirt junior pitcher, Mike) Hoekstra, (freshman pitcher) Bushur, and those guys keep us in the game.”

Schmitz said he thinks after talking to junior lead-off hitter Zach Borenstein, they should have Borenstein’s issues at the plate ironed out.

“We had a really good talk,” Schmitz said. “I think you’d be amazed as a coach when you talk to your players and you just see what’s going through their head. When Borno goes, you look at our four wins, and we have so many good players, but we all feed off of Zach. That’s a lot of pressure but that’s the truth.”

Schmitz said early in the season Eastern Kentucky was one of the teams that can and will run, and he said even though freshman Cameron Berra threw out a base stealer on Wednesday, freshman Jacob Reese will remain his starting catcher.

The Panthers are set to start a double header at 1 p.m. Saturday in Coaches’ Stadium with a single game Sunday at the same time as Eastern takes on the Colonels.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].