The Panthers (34-10, 12-3 OVC) dropped four spots from 24th to 28th. After two of its games were canceled due to inclement weather last week, EIU only played three times. Eastern did manage to win both ends of a big Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader at Southeast Missouri State Saturday. The two victories gave EIU a three-game lead (in the loss column) of the league standings with two conference weekends remaining. With a 14-4 record in true road games, Eastern sports the second best road winning percentage (.778) in the country.
The Panthers have also locked up a berth in the six-team OVC Tournament, set for May 20-24 in Paducah, Ky. Even if EIU was to somehow lose all six of its remaining conference games, none of the three teams outside of the current top six teams in the standings could post a better winning percentage than Eastern. Having won the OVC Tournament as the four seed last year, EIU will be making consecutive appearances in the tourney for the first time since 2003 and 2004. However, the program did qualify for the annual event in each of its first eight years as a conference member.
The Panthers continue to receive votes in both the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches' poll and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Top 30 poll. Eastern received 10 poll points in the coaches' poll this week, essentially ranking 32nd nationally.
The Panthers still lead the OVC in batting average (.366), home runs (85), slugging percentage (.604) and batting average against (.264). Eastern was ranked second in the country in batting average and slugging last week. Updated national rankings will be released Tuesday, May 5.
Even though the Ping!Baseball.com poll is not generally considered among the big four that cover college baseball, the Omaha-based Web site is one of the more prominent information destinations for the game on the Internet. The Panthers have posted wins against three other teams ranked in this week's Ping! Top 30 poll: Oklahoma (13th), South Florida (29th) and Illinois (30th).
Eastern's 34 overall victories represent the fifth highest total in program history. The Panthers could tie the school wins record (37 in 1998) with a three-game sweep of Austin Peay in Clarksville this weekend (May 9-10). Eastern is idle this week for final exams.
Poll Links (May 4)
NCBWA Top 30
USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll
Collegiate Baseball Top 30
Baseball America Top 25
Ping!Baseball.com Top 30
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Boyd's World >>> RPI Analysis
