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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Returning to the Sunshine State for its spring break trip, Eastern Illinois baseball begins its annual trek south in Tampa at the four-team Bulls Baseball Classic hosted by the University of South Florida.

 

With Bethune-Cookman and 15th-ranked Oklahoma rounding out the tournament field, the event sets up in similar fashion to an NCAA Tournament Regional. The four teams all hail from different conferences and essentially different backgrounds.

 

The Panthers (6-4) are scheduled to take on South Florida (7-5) Friday at 6 p.m. (CDT), Bethune-Cookman (8-7) Saturday at 2 p.m. (CDT) and Oklahoma (15-3) at 11 a.m. (CDT) Sunday. Eastern then makes the short trip inland to the Lakeland-Winter Haven area where it will play Indiana Tuesday morning and Bradley Wednesday morning.

 

Ohio Valley Conference play opens next weekend, with EIU traveling to Morehead State on its way back to the Land of Lincoln.

 

The Panthers posted a 5-3 record during their 2008 spring break trip at the Florida All-Star Challenge in Bradenton. It was in the Sunshine State that EIU rebounded from its 0-7 start. Eastern went on to post a 14-7 record over a month's time after registering its first win of the 2008 season on March 9.

 

A season later, the Panthers head out on spring break having already posted six victories. However, the USF tournament at Red McEwen Field sets up as arguably the toughest weekend of the regular season.

 

“The spring break trip is fun, but really a lot of work for [assistant coaches] Sean Lyons and Skylar Meade; they do all the scouting reports,” EIU head coach Jim Schmitz said. “Last year's regional is over. How we react to the game as it is played is what is important.

 

“[Richie] Derbak is very hot at the plate right now, as well as a few others. I will keep the same lineup and platoon [Alex] Gee and [Jake] Samuels. [Zach] Borenstein will fill-in in right field for [Ryan] Lindquist, who is struggling. But we need Lindquist, as each OVC team has a top left-handed pitcher. We want to get 11 to 12 guys in so they feel they are contributing to our success. It's nice to see games where different people contribute. I think it is a sign of a good team.”

 

Derbak has hit safely in all eight games in which he has batted this season. He was 11-for-30 (.367) with eight RBIs and no strikeouts during last year's spring break trip. Jordan Tokarz led the way with a 15-for-33 (.455) showing, hitting safely in all eight games.

 

Eastern's weekend rotation was impressive last weekend at the Cardinal Classic in Louisville. Josh Mueller, Tyler Kehrer and Mike Recchia each pitched at least six innings and gave up no more than four runs.

 

The Panthers are trying to get long-relief ace Brian Morrell back on track after a couple tough outings recently. He was unable to hold the lead in each of EIU's last two losses, retiring only two of the nine batters he faced in those outings combined. However, last season Morrell did not emerge as a major contributor in the bullpen until after the spring break trip.

 

“We try to be consistent with the weekend rotation,” Schmitz said. “We are very pleased with our starting pitching, and the three of them are being competitive with each other by going out there and doing better each time. It's great to see. On the other hand, we are going to try to get Brian into a game with less pressure to get him going. We know he will come around.”

 

The Panthers have not played South Florida or Bethune-Cookman during the program's Ohio Valley Conference era (1997-present). Eastern was swept in a season-opening, three-game series at Oklahoma in 2005.

 

Both USF and B-C have played EIU's former OVC rival Samford this season. The Bulls have won five of their last six games, but have yet to leave the state of Florida thus far.

 

Bethune-Cookman has made eight NCAA Regional appearances under head coach Mervyl Melendez. The Daytona Beach-based school is annually the team to beat the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

 

Oklahoma opened the season with a four-game series sweep of Western Illinois in Norman. The Sooners will ride an eight-game winning streak into the tournament.

 

Probable Pitching Match-ups

Friday: EIU's Josh Mueller (So, RHP) vs. USF's Matt Stull (So, RHP)

Saturday: EIU's Tyler Kehrer (Jr, LHP) vs. B-C's Eric Thomas (Sr, RHP)
Sunday: EIU's Mike Recchia (So, RHP) vs. OU's Garrett Richards (Jr, RHP)

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID