Game Notes | Live Stats | Saint Louis | Butler | Evansville

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Aiming to build on its season-opening series victory at Southeastern Louisiana, Eastern Illinois baseball travels to southwest Indiana to participate in Evansville's Dunn Hospitality Diamond Classic for the third time in the last four years.

 

The four-team tournament calls for EIU (2-1, 27-30 in 2008) to play three different Midwest teams in three consecutive days. The Panthers will take on Saint Louis (2-3, 24-29 in 2008) Friday at 1 p.m., Butler (1-0, 12-34 in 2008) Saturday at 11 a.m. and the host Evansville Purple Aces (0-3, 14-42 in 2008) Sunday at 3 p.m. in the finale of the event at Braun Stadium.

 

The weekend forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-40s on Friday and Saturday, then dropping into the mid-30s on Sunday. There's a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday.

 

Eastern opened its 2006 and 2007 seasons at Evansville's tournament, posting a 1-2 record in '06 and a 2-1 mark a year later.

 

The Panthers posted a 10-5 neutral-site record in 2008. Eastern recorded five of those victories during the spring break trip in Florida, and four more on its way to winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Paducah, Ky.

 

Friday: EIU's Josh Mueller (So, RHP) vs. SLU's Scott Turmail (Sr, RHP)

Saturday: EIU's Tyler Kehrer (Jr, LHP) vs. BU's Matt Sokolowski (Sr, LHP)

Sunday's EIU's Mike Recchia (So, RHP) vs. UE's Wade Kapteyn (Jr, RHP)

 

Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz says he prefers a standard weekend series vs. a single opponent this time of the year. After returning players accounted for 88 of EIU's 98 team at-bats last weekend at Southeastern Louisiana, he plans to give some of his new players more chances at the plate.

 

“I really do not like the three-opponent tourney format; I prefer to get ready for the OVC-type, three-game weekend series,” Schmitz said. “Regardless, at this stage in the season we keep [the scouting reports] pretty simple – focusing on who runs and bunts, who their big hitters are and what type of game each team plays. We will definitely see each team's weekend pitchers. We faced good pitching last weekend at Southeastern Louisiana. The intensity at this tourney will be good for us.”

 

“Early in the year I want to get 12 to 13 guys a chance to hit and contribute to the team. I think it is important to have more people feel part of the team, but it is more difficult in baseball than football and basketball since we can't put [the starters] back in the game.”

 

In Sunday's rubber game win at SELU, freshmen Zach Borenstein (DH) and Gerik Wallsten (catcher) both made their first starts. Regular DH Richie Derbak was slated to pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen, but only needed to work the ninth after starter Mike Recchia retired the final 16 batters he faced in a career-long, eight-inning outing.

 

“Richie is very vital to the bullpen, and when we feel he might pitch longer we may start someone else at DH again,” Schmitz said. “I told the catchers in the fall that they only need to handle the pitching staff and reduce the number of passed balls and wild pitches we had last year. We do have an experienced and pretty good offensive team, so I look for the catcher position to catch first and hit second.”

 

The Panthers annually play SLU in midweek action, but Friday's tourney opener has both teams starting the leader of its weekend rotation. The Billikens split a season-opening, four-game road trip in California last weekend and lost a midweek game at Indiana State Tuesday. Saint Louis was tabbed 12th in the 14-team Atlantic-10 Conference preseason poll.

 

Eastern has not played Butler since 2002. The Bulldogs won their season opener Wednesday against Marian College, an NAIA school also located in Indianapolis. Butler was tabbed seventh in the seven-team Horizon League preseason poll.

 

The Panthers have played Evansville each of the last three seasons, winning the last two meetings. The two teams met in the final game of 2008 at Coaches Stadium, with EIU scoring all 10 of its runs in the sixth inning. The Purple Aces lost both games of their weather-shortened, season-opening series at East Tennessee State and dropped a midweek game, 13-2, at the Panthers' OVC rival UT Martin Wednesday. Evansville was tabbed ninth in the nine-team Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll.

Kapteyn started the UTM game for Evansville, surrendering four home runs in 3 2/3 innings.

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID