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CHARLESTON, Ill. – While striving to extend its current hot stretch, Eastern Illinois baseball will also take advantage of an opportunity to honor two of the greatest teams in program history in conjunction with this weekend's Ohio Valley Conference series against Jacksonville State.

 

Saturday's doubleheader and the series finale Sunday are both slated for a 1 p.m. first pitch. Members of the 1964 NAIA World Series and 1999 NCAA Regional teams will be in attendance this weekend. Between games of Saturday's doubleheader, both teams will be recognized and pitching legend Marty Pattin will have his EIU No. 19 retired. It will be the first Panther baseball number retired and only the fourth overall in the history of Eastern Illinois athletics.

 

The first 250 fans arriving at Coaches Stadium Saturday will receive a commemorative Martin Pattin T-shirt with his name and number featured on the back.

 

The on-field action, meanwhile, will feature the two preseason favorites to win the OVC this year. Last season, Jax State (20-13, 5-4 OVC) won the regular-season title and EIU (26-6, 9-1 OVC) captured the tournament crown. The Panthers enter the weekend having won 16 of their last 17 games.

 

Along with Pattin, those returning from the 1964 team includes: Nick Balodimas, Bob Clifford, Ted Colbert, Tad Heminger, Robert Hoffek, Dave Orr, Gene Vidoni and head coach Bill McCabe. Bart Zeller, who also played at EIU during that era before moving on to a professional career, will be on hand as well. The 1964 Panthers went 23-7.

 

Along with head coach Jim Schmitz and assistant coach Sean Lyons, those returning from the 1999 team includes: Jamie Baker, Ryan Bridgewater, Josh Landon, John Larson, Keith Laski, Matt Marzec, Scott Metz, Brian Nickell, Mitch Rosenthal and Mark Tomse. The 1999 Panthers went 33-23, won both the OVC regular-season and tournament titles and defeated Arizona at the Waco, Texas NCAA Regional.

 

“I really, really will enjoy this weekend,” Schmitz said. “The '99 team was very good with a lot of special guys. For me, I'm getting to that age now, reunions are about seeing good friends; they're not players anymore. I'm real excited and glad to bring them back.”

 

Pattin was an All-American pitcher who went on to enjoy an extremely successful 13-year Major League pitching career with five American League teams. The Charleston native won 114 games and recorded 1,179 strikeouts as a Major Leaguer. Six times Pattin won more than 10 games in a single season. He pitched a one-hitter vs. the world champion Oakland A's in 1972, was a member of the 1971 American League All-Star team, participated in four American League Divisional playoff series with the Kansas City Royals and ended a spectacular career by pitching for the Royals in the 1980 World Series.

 

Pattin is a charter member of the EIU Hall of Fame in 1982 and was selected to the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1972.

 

Since joining the OVC in 2004, Jacksonville State has been the premier program in the league. The Gamecocks have won two regular-season titles (2005 and 2008) and two tournament titles (2004 and 2006) in their five years as a league member. However, EIU leads the series as conference rivals, 9-8. Eastern is the only OVC school that Jax State does not have a winning record against.

 

“We play good competition and a good schedule, so when we play J-State, SEMO or whoever, we don't make it out to be more than what it is,” Schmitz said. “We enjoy playing against them. Some teams you have a lot of animosity toward, and we don't. We know they're a good team. We know we're going to face them again in the tournament. Our guys really get up for it, but in a composed way, and maybe that's why we do well.”

 

Along with being the top two teams in the preseason poll, EIU and JSU also had the Preseason Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Brett Nommensen suffered a hand injury April 10 at UT Martin and will be limited to a pinch-runner role. Ben Tootle is expected to start game two, and entering the season was being projected as a possible first round selection in June's MLB First-Year Player Draft.

 

Last season, the Gamecocks won both ends of a Sunday doubleheader to win the weekend series in Charleston, two games to one. However, EIU got the last laugh in the OVC Tournament, upsetting top-seeded JSU in the final of the winner's bracket, 10-6. That victory ended the Gamecocks' 17-game win streak, which was the second longest in the nation at the time.

 

This season, JSU will try to end the Panthers' nine-game home win streak, which is currently the sixth longest active run in the country. Eastern opened a season-long, 10-game homestand Wednesday.

 

The Gamecocks, meanwhile, have been road warriors as of late. This weekend's series will be the last of three straight road sets for the Alabama-based school. Jax State has already played at Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois this month. A rubber game loss at SEMO on April 5 ended JSU's impressive streak of 14 consecutive OVC series victories.

 

Eastern was the only OVC team that Tootle did not post a victory against last season. Tyler Kehrer was a big reason why. The two prospects put on a pitcher's duel in game two of last year's series in Charleston. Tootle stuck out seven and gave up only two singles through 7 1/3 scoreless innings. Kehrer was equally impressive, striking out eight and surrendering only five hits through 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Jax State won the game thanks to a two-out home run in the ninth inning.

 

“We're not playing Tootle, we're playing J-State,” Schmitz said. He's just really tough. He's what he's made out to be. We just watched film on him a little bit from last year. We really tried to pull him. Against Oklahoma the pitcher was throwing 94-95 (mph), and we focused on not trying to pull him. We've said 'get a good pitch' all year long, and we've been doing it. If you try to pull him it's going to be a long day, and that's what it was last year.

 

“Coach (Jim) Case does a great job with pitching. They've always had arms that mix-and-match against who we have. They're just not going to throw average Joes; they'll have some guys out there trying to do some things.”

 

Probable Pitching Matchups

Game 1: EIU's Josh Mueller (So, RHP) vs. JSU's Daniel Watts (Fr, LHP)

Game 2: EIU's Tyler Kehrer (Jr, LHP) vs. JSU's Ben Tootle (Jr, RHP)

Game 3: EIU's Mike Recchia (So, RHP) vs. JSU's Austin Lucas (Jr, RHP)

 

SKIDMORE STREAKING: Zach Skidmore is currently riding a career-best 10-game hitting streak dating back to March 31. It's the third longest active hit streak in the OVC. He has also hit safely in 22 of the last 24 games and reached base safely in all but one contest (game two of the Tennessee Tech doubleheader) this season. The senior has posted six multi-hit efforts during his 10-game streak and homered in each of the last three games. He recorded a six-hit game and scored five times in the 30-3 blowout win at UT Martin.