Eastern’s pitching staff allowed 39 runs, the team’s defense committed nine errors and Eastern baseball coach Jim Schmitz saw his Panthers swept at home by Ohio Valley Conference foe Jacksonville State.

Schmitz said it was time for a change, following Sunday’s 8-6 series finale loss, which was Eastern’s fifth straight conference loss of the season that dropped the Panthers to 2-7 in the OVC – second to last behind Tennessee-Martin in the standings.

“Right now, I’m looking at OVC stats only, not games against Arkansas and Mississippi State, but we’re last in pitching and we’re last in defense,” Schmitz said. “That’s the problem in a nutshell and the changes will come in the way we practice.”

Schmitz is 27 games into his 20th season coaching Eastern’s baseball team and has always been more of a hitter’s type of coach, but the emphasis on pitching and defense has been raised, starting Monday.

“Being indoor in the fieldhouse all this time, we put a whole lot of attention on hitting in the offseason and that’s the change in practice, we’re really going to be defense and pitching oriented,” Schmitz said.

In their nine games in conference play, with three-game series against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Austin Peay and Jacksonville State, respectively, the Panthers have made 19 errors.

During that same nine-game stretch, Eastern pitchers have accumulated a 7.24 ERA, allowing 66 earned runs. With the 19 errors in conference play, the Panthers have surrendered an additional 21 unearned runs.

Eastern will begin to devote double the amount of its practice time to pitching and defense than it has through the first seven weeks of the season, Schmitz said.

“Sometimes we do defense when hitting is going on during practice, so there’s not that attention to detail – fungos are being hit and they’re fielding ground balls, but it’s not live,” Schmitz said.

With more time being dedicated to taking live ground balls, the Eastern fielders would feel more pressure similar to what it would feel like during a game, as they have the visual of having to throw runners out during practice, Schmitz said.

Against Jacksonville State, the Panthers were charged with 13 unearned runs coming from their nine errors.

Eastern back on the road

Eastern is back on the road after playing eight straight games at Coaches Stadium and will play Illinois State Tuesday afternoon.

The Redbirds are 17-8 overall this season and are coming off an 11-1 win over Indiana State Sunday that improved their record to 4-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Illinois State’s projected starter is Will Headean, who is 0-1 with a 10.61 ERA in seven appearances. He will be making his second start of the year Tuesday.

Eastern lost left-handed pitcher Christian Slazinik to a hamstring injury Sunday against Jacksonville State, which does not bode well to the Panthers’ dwindling bullpen, Schmitz said.

Although he believes Slazinik is not ruled out for the remainder of the season, Schmitz said the red-shirt junior would be re-evaluated by the end of the week.

With Slazinik’s injury and Joe Greenfield’s inconsistent pitching this season, Schmitz still has not settled on who will pitch against Illinois State and has not yet decided who would be his third starter against Murray State.

Following a three-game sweep, Schmitz is looking forward to simply getting back on the field, he said.

“In football, if you lose two weekends in a row, it’s three weeks until the next time you get out there with a chance to win,” Schmitz said. “Baseball is good, in that when you have a bad weekend, you’re right back up on the horse.”

First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Bob Warn Field in Normal.

Who’s hot, who’s not

Red-shirt sophomore Demetre Taylor hit .500 (8-for-16) in four games – one against Saint Louis and three against Jacksonville State.

Taylor hit three home runs against the Gamecocks, including two Saturday against Casey Antley in Eastern’s 23-15 loss.

The Tampa, Fla., native drove in nine runs and scored six times, while also reaching base an additional three times with walks. Taylor currently leads the OVC in conference-only games with a .909 slugging percentage, which measures a hitter’s power.

Overall, he is batting .362, with four home runs and 29 RBIs, with an on-base percentage of .450.

Junior Caleb Howell leads the OVC with a .500 batting average in OVC games and is coming off an 8-for-16 week.

Eastern’s leadoff man scored six runs in four games and also had three RBIs, while getting on base three more times with two walks and one hit by pitch.

Howell leads Eastern with an overall .429 batting average and a .492 on-base percentage. In OVC play, Howell has a .581 on-base percentage, which is tied with Austin Peay’s Cayce Bredlau for a conference-best mark.

Senior pitcher Joe Greenfield made two appearances out of Eastern’s bullpen against Jacksonville State and picked up consecutive losses on Saturday and Sunday.

In the Panthers’ eight-run loss Saturday, Eastern allowed 13 runs with two outs in the seventh inning, five coming against Greenfield who did not record an out after giving up two hits and three walks and also throwing two wild pitches.

Sunday, he took the loss, being charged with two runs (one earned) on four hits and a walk.

Greenfield has a 6.28 overall ERA and has allowed 43 hits in 28.2 innings, giving up 20 earned runs.

Freshman Frankie Perrone is 3-for-28 (.107) in his last nine games, striking out nine times. In Friday’s series-opener against the Gamecocks, Perrone was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

In the final two games of the series, he was relegated to pinch-hitting duties, as he went 1-for-2 with a run scored.

In 25 games this season, Perrone is hitting .253 with three home runs and 12 RBIs.

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