Eastern is set to face off against the Southern Illinois Edwardsville Cougars in the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship winners’ bracket semifinal on Friday.

These two teams last saw each other on Mother’s Day weekend, and SIUE was able to sweep EIU and take sole possession of first place in the OVC standings.

The first matchup between the two teams was a 3-2 come-from-behind victory for SIUE, as the Cougars used two solo home runs in the seventh and eighth innings to take the lead.

SIUE proceeded to hit 15 more home runs in the series for a total of 17.

The Cougars shut down EIU in those next two games, winning both of them by double digit runs.

Panther’s head coach Jason Anderson was disappointed in the result of the series but was hopeful that the Panthers would get this matchup again in this tournament.

“Hopefully we see them in the tournament,” Anderson said after the final game of the series on May 10. “It’s really hard to beat somebody four times in a row.”

These two teams played against each other last year in the tournament with EIU eliminating SIUE 11-6.

The game is set to start at 11 a.m. Friday at Mtn Dew Park in Marion.

Aaron Coffin can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].