Eastern will play Little Rock again in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, this time in the championship at 12 p.m.
The Panthers must beat the Trojans twice to win the OVC title and earn the auto-bid to the NCAA baseball regionals, while Little Rock just needs to win once.
In their earlier matchup, the Trojans jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the top of the second inning. However, Eastern didn’t stop fighting and brought the game to extra innings but would ultimately lose by one run in the 10th inning.
Panther head coach Jason Anderson has not confirmed a starter.
Eastern does have two starters left without many pitches under their belt this tournament. Graduate left-handed pitcher Tyler Kapruan only threw 28 pitches in his short start against Little Rock on Thursday, and sophomore right-handed pitcher Anthony Solis threw 46 pitches in his save against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Thursday.
For relievers, pitching coach Max Fecske said that everyone is available. The Panthers only used one pitcher on Friday thanks to Bryce Riggs’ complete game.
The Trojans are entering their fifth game of the tournament, which means five games’ worth of pitchers. However, two deep starts by senior right-handed pitcher Jackson Wells, throwing a complete game in the tournament opener, and junior right-handed pitcher Brody Bunting throwing seven on Friday, will help their pitching situation.
Little Rock’s bread and butter this tournament has been getting the lead early. The Trojans have gotten off to a four-run or more lead within the first three innings in all of their games.
“I think the big inning is really big for them,” Fecske said. “They’ve had a lot of fives, a lot of fours, a lot of threes, a lot of sixes. They’ve done the thing where they go up big early, then they kind of manage the game from there. For us, it’s going to be making consecutive quality pitches, trying to minimize innings, make sure that we’re able to keep ourselves in the game and give ourselves a chance to win it.”
Should Eastern force a winner-take-all championship game with a win, the game would start approximately 60 minutes after the conclusion of the first one.
Bryce Parker can be reached at 581-2812 or at baparker2@eiu.edu.
