The Panther baseball team won one game out of three this weekend as it traveled to Clarksville, Tenn. to continue its Ohio Valley Conference schedule against the Governors of Austin Peay.

The Panthers opened the weekend by splitting a double header with the Govs, as they won game one 11-9 on the power of a six-run second inning rally keyed by a Ben Thoma grand slam.

The red-shirt junior led the Panthers at the plate in game one, as Thoma went 2-for-5 with four RBIs. Thoma finished the weekend with two home runs and five runs driven in.

The game was won on the mound by red-shirt junior Mike Hoekstra, as the right-hander went 5.2 innings with seven runs allowed on 13 hits while neither walking nor striking out any Governor batters.

Saturday’s win was also the 600th in the head coaching career of Panther Head Coach Jim Schmitz, who is currently in his 17th season at Eastern. Schmitz currently stands as the winningest coach in Panther history, having reached his 300th win as a Panther in 2006.

“I think back on some of the players and the fun I have had with the teams I have coached,” Schmitz said. “I have enjoyed my time at Eastern and it’s a blessing for me and my family to have been at Eastern for 17 years.”

Game two was a much different story, as the Panthers lost the second game of Saturday’s twin-bill by a final score of 8-0.

The Panthers had trouble getting the ball rolling on offense in game two, as freshman Cam Berra led the offense with a pair of hits. The team as a whole was only able to notch six hits in the seven-inning contest.

Eastern also committed a season-high four errors in the loss while failing to get a runner to third base in the game.

Sunday’s rubber-match started off rough for the Panthers, as the Govs scored five times in the first three innings against freshman lefty Christian Slazinik, including a three-run homer with two outs in the third immediately after sophomore third baseman Ryan Dineen dropped a pop up that was blown around by the wind in Clarksville.

Slazinik finished his day with 3.1 innings pitched, allowing three earned runs on six hits while walking one and striking out one.

Eastern proceeded to put together a three-run rally of its own in the top of the fourth, created in part by a throwing error with the bases loaded.

The Panthers and Govs went back and forth throughout the rest of the game, with a two-run rally in the top of the ninth inning coming up just short as the Panthers lost by a final score of 8-7 Sunday.

Schmitz said the weekend was not what he had hoped for.

“After winning game one we did not hit in game two and made way too many defensive mistakes in game three,” Schmitz said. “Routine pop ups were either misplayed or dropped which led to six runs.”

The losses drop the Panthers, who won two games out of three last weekend against Eastern Kentucky, to 3-3 in the OVC as they get ready to play a pair of mid-week games at home against Western Illinois Tuesday and at Chicago State Wednesday.

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