The Eastern baseball team was scheduled to play a tournament hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign starting Friday at Illinois Field, but Panthers’ coach Jim Schmitz had an opportunity he could not pass up.

About two weeks ago IPFW called Schmitz because it would not be able to play at home and was looking for an opponent.

Already committed to play at Illinois, Schmitz had to make a call of his own before accepting IPFW’s offer to play at Coaches Stadium.

“Coach (Dan) Hartleb at Illinois was good enough to let me change,” Schmitz said.

Eastern has a 4-16, with all 20 games coming on the road for the Panthers after their scheduled home opener was moved to Edwardsville on March 7.

The Panthers have traveled 2,813 miles to eight different destinations this year. Schmitz said playing at home compared to four more road games was any easy decision to make.

“The chance to play at home was a no-brainer,” he said. “It’s all about playing at home, being able to sleep in your own bed and not traveling. It’s been crazy the travel we’ve been doing.”

The Panthers are coming off a devastating 3-2 loss Tuesday against Southern Illinois-Carbondale, which scored two runs to walk-off with the win in the bottom of the ninth inning after Eastern scored in the top-half to take a brief lead.

Schmitz said, Eastern needs to learn how to hold on to leads, following Tuesday’s loss.

Including the loss to the Salukis, Eastern has lost seven games in which it has had a lead in the fifth inning or later.

Schmitz said he hopes being at home turns the Panthers’ inconsistent play around.

In the past 10 games, Eastern has not been able to get its pitching and offense in sync.

The Panthers have scored 45 runs, but have allowed 60 runs during that 10-game stretch.

Schmitz’s pitching staff has been hampered with some injuries early this season that has forced him to rearrange his bullpen.

Troy Barton started the season as a starter, but after a bulging disk in his lower back Schmitz decided to put him in the bullpen, where he has primarily been pitching late in games.

Christian Slazinik made four starts and five appearances for Eastern, but has not pitched since March 11.

With these setbacks, Schmitz has moved Joe Greenfield into the starting rotation.

Greenfield had been the team’s closer and similar to last season, will now start because of injuries to other pitchers.

IPFW enters the three-game series at 4-13 and has lost five of its last six games.

Eastern’s offense will face three starters that all have ERAs of 5.12 or higher.

The Panthers have won six of their eight games against IPFW, including their last meeting in 2012, when Eastern won 8-2.

Matt Borens will start the first game of the series, as first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday at Coaches Stadium. Saturday and Sunday’s games start at 1 p.m.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].