Grad left-hander Tyler Kapraun will be Eastern’s starting pitcher against Little Rock in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, head coach Jason Anderson confirmed.

Kapraun, who has a team-leading 60 strikeouts and 72 and one-third innings pitched, is 6-4 this season with a 3.86 ERA. The Panthers (29-20, 17-7) have won the last four games that Kapraun has started and five out of his last six starts.

Little Rock (21-32, 8-16) played in the first game in the OVC tournament, defeating the 5-seed Southern Indiana 10-1 behind a 129-pitch complete game, eight strikeout performance by senior right-hander Jackson Wells.

In the second round, the Trojans’ offense kept their momentum by scoring five runs in the first inning and held on to beat the 4-seed Southeast Missouri 9-7. Little Rock used three pitchers against SEMO.

Eastern only played one of its scheduled three games with Little Rock during the regular season, while the other two games were rained out. The Panthers won 6-3 on May 2.

Thursday’s game is set for an 11 a.m. first pitch.

Lindenwood’s 9-1 win over Tennessee Tech late Wednesday wrapped up the first day of the tournament. Three of the four elimination games on Wednesday were won by the team with the higher seed, and it marks the second time in the last three years that both the third and fourth seeded teams failed to make it to the second day of the tournament.

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.