Issue date: 3/27/09 Section: Sports

Sophomore pitcher Matt Miller pitches the ball during the game against Illinois State on Wednesday at Coaches Stadium. The Panthers won 9-5. (Alycia Rockey/The Daily Eastern News)

The Eastern baseball team has a slogan this season for when a player commits an error.

"No big deal."

It seems simple enough, but that mentality has helped the Panthers to a .965 fielding percentage through their first 20 contests, good for third in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"It's nothing monumental, but we just say 'no big deal,'" Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said. "There is no big deal. We made an error, now let's go out and turn a double play."

The Panthers (15-5, 3-0 OVC) will need to continue their solid defense this weekend as they host the OVC's second best defensive team in Tennessee Tech (11-8, 0-3). The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday with the first game starting at noon and the series finale will be Sunday at 1 p.m. All three games will be played at Coaches Stadium.

Three of Eastern's regular starters - senior center fielder Brett Nommensen, junior left fielder Curt Restko and freshman first baseman Jake Samuels - have yet to commit an error on the season.

In Wednesday's 9-5 win against Illinois State, Restko made a leaping catch at the wall in the top of the seventh inning that robbed Redbirds' junior designated hitter Anthony Ruffolo of a potential game-tying home run.

"Defensively I've been very pleased," Schmitz said. "You normally say one error a game, and I think we're at that pace. I've been very, very pleased."

The Panthers are averaging 1.3 errors per game.

This weekend, Eastern will face a Golden Eagles that was swept in their lone OVC series against Southeast Missouri. They are led offensively by junior shortstop Heath Cheverton and sophomore first baseman A.J. Kirby-Jones.

Cheverton is hitting a team-high .359 on the season out of the leadoff spot and Kirby-Jones leads them with eight home runs and 31 RBIs. However, Kirby-Jones is a scarce power bat in the Golden Eagles' lineup as the rest of the roster has combined to hit just nine long balls.

Schmitz said Thursday's practice would be the main day for going over things to look for against Tennessee Tech. But he emphasized that with a veteran team, they are more focused on what they need to do than what Tennessee Tech will be doing.

"We really focus more on ourselves, and we enjoy that because you don't have to give the team so much information," he said. "They know if you keep the ball low in the zone you're probably going to win and if we keep swinging the bats well and not worry about what the pitcher is doing we're going to do well."

After the weekend series, the Panthers will hit the road again as they will travel to St. Louis at 3 p.m. Tuesday to face Saint Louis University.


Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or at cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

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