Eastern senior Joe Greenfield eventually settled into his start against Tennessee Tech, but a misplayed ground ball and three straight walks in the first inning were enough to lead the Golden Eagles to an 8-3 win Sunday at Coaches Stadium.

Tennessee Tech’s Brandon Thomasson hit a ground ball toward Eastern first baseman Cameron Berra.

Greenfield sprinted over to cover first base, anticipating a throw over from Berra to end the top of the first inning. At the same time, Eastern second baseman Mitch Gasbarro also charged in after the ball.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Berra could not glove the ground ball, as it scooted under his glove and rolled into shallow right field. Thomasson reached safely and Tyler Brazelton scored from second base.

The Golden Eagles had a 1-0 lead, but they added three more off of back-to-back walks with the bases loaded and an infield single. Eastern trailed Tennessee Tech 4-0 after the top of the first inning – a deficit they could not overcome.

The loss dropped the Panthers to 5-10 in the Ohio Valley Conference, pinning the Panthers near the bottom of the standings.

Eastern coach Jim Schmitz said the Panthers gave Tennessee Tech too many opportunities to score early Sunday afternoon.

“With a team this good we gave them too many free chances in the first inning,” Schmitz said. “You can’t do what we did in the first inning against the team that was picked to win the league.”

The Golden Eagles walked four times in the first inning, to go along with the error that should have ended the inning with Greenfield not allowing any runs.

Tennessee Tech won the weekend series and improved to 11-7 in the OVC and 28-10 overall.

The Golden Eagles added another run in the second inning to go ahead 5-0, as Thomasson ripped a triple to right field, where Frankie Perrone had trouble negotiating the gusty conditions to locate the baseball.

The Panthers were able to get within three runs of Tennessee Tech, as Jacob Reese brought in the first Eastern run in the bottom of third inning, with a groundball hit to second base. Dane Sauer came across to score from third base to make it a 5-1 game.

Brant Valach also drove in a run in the third inning, hitting a line drive to right field, scoring Caleb Howell, drawing the Panthers closer at 5-2.

“To find ourselves in that big hole it was pretty hard to get over, but I thought we competed really well coming out of that,” Schmitz said.

Greenfield settled in after the second inning and did not allow an earned run again until he departed in the seventh inning.

The right-handed pitcher allowed six total runs, two of them earned, while walking six and surrendering 10 hits.

Schmitz said he does not know what has been going wrong with Greenfield, who has had command issues this season, walking 28 batters and hitting eight hitters in 40.2 innings.

“He’s not been sharp all year and obviously the tension in the first inning, when you’re in situation where there is a lot of pressure, then you tend to go back and do certain things that you don’t want to do,” Schmitz said.

The Panthers dropped to 11-23 overall and will close its five-game home stand against Indiana State, starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Following the midweek game, the Panthers will travel south to play Southeast Missouri.

In the meantime, Eastern has to find other ways to win, Schmitz said.

“We’re playing the best team in the league next weekend, so we’re showing signs of being sharp and showing signs of being good but across the board we have to find out other ways to win,” Schmitz said.

Southeast Missouri is 15-3 in the OVC. The three-game series begins at 5 p.m. Friday in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

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