The Eastern baseball team opened up its Ohio Valley Conference schedule this weekend, as it won two games out of three against Eastern Kentucky.

The series started Saturday as the Panthers lost in 10 innings by a score of 9-7.

The second game of Saturday’s doubleheader was postponed after game one, which started at 1 p.m., went for almost four hours.

Head coach Jim Schmitz said most coaches in that situation would prefer not to start a game they would not have time to finish, and with overcast skies and nightfall approaching, the lack of lights in Coaches’ Stadium caused the Panthers and Colonels to push the game back to Sunday and make both Sunday games seven innings.

Saturday’s game was a pitchers’ duel for the first five innings, as the first scoring happened for EKU in the sixth inning.

The Panthers fought back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth and two more in the bottom of the seventh to pull within one run of the Colonels.

EKU scored one more run in the top of the eighth to make it 6-4 before the Panthers rallied to tie it 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth.

The Colonels then took the lead with a three-run rally of their own in the top of the 10th before a Panther rally fell short as Jacob Reese was the potential tying run but grounded out to end the game.

Sunday’s first contest started off in the same way as Saturday’s did, as Panther freshman Luke Bushur and Colonel starter Kyle McGrath pitched shutouts on the scoreboard through the first three and a half frames until the Panthers scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a lead they would not relinquish, as they won the first game by a final score of 8-1

Game two of yesterday’s doubleheader started off with freshman left-handed pitcher Christian Slazinik setting a new career high in the first three innings as he struck out five Colonels in those frames and eight overall for the game to earn his first collegiate win.

“I thought I pitched all right,” Slazinik said. “It really helped that the team came in to back me up after my one rough inning. I just needed to do my job and I felt like the team would do theirs.”

The Panthers posted single runs in the first two innings as the offense continued to roll along after their five-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth in game one.

The tides would begin to turn against the Panthers in the top of the fourth, however, as EKU posted three runs on a pair of singles followed by a two-run double and a run scoring from third on a wild pitch by Slazinik.

Slazinik would recover to strike out the side in order in the top of the fifth and the offense followed suit by rallying to post three runs in the bottom half on a Ben Thoma home run to left-center field.

Thoma said he was just trying to make solid contact and hit the ball hard when he hit his home run.

“All game he was throwing me nothing but off-speed, and I just told myself to stay back and drive the ball and I squared it up,” said Thoma. “It felt pretty good.”

Thoma’s home run would give the Panthers a lead they would hold on to for the rest of the game, as they won the second game of yesterday’s double-header by a final score of 5-4.

Coach Schmitz said the wins were key in the first conference weekend, especially heading into two road series in the next two weekends against Austin Peay and Morehead State.

“The next to weekends we go on the road,” said Schmitz. “Knowing we go to Peay and we go to Morehead, you’ve got to start off on a pretty good foot and we haven’t done that the last couple years.”

Both Thoma and McManus as well as Schmitz said they felt it was key for the Panthers to win yesterday.

“To come out here and get two quality wins is really big to get our team going,” said McManus, “especially in conference.”

The weekend leaves Eastern with a record of 6-14 and 2-1 in conference.

The Panthers play at home on Tuesday against Saint Louis before traveling to Indiana State on Wednesday and Austin Peay this weekend to continue conference play.

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