The Bo Durkac Show
NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State baseball team will play its final away games of the season when it heads to Southern Illinois to begin a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series with the Salukis at Itchy Jones Stadium.
The series begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. First pitches for the second and third games are set for Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Illinois State (12-34, 1-14 MVC) returns to action after being swept by Indiana State in a three-game series at Duffy Bass Field last weekend, May 5-7. Southern Illinois (23-26, 6-9) also struggled last weekend as the Salukis were swept by league-leading Missouri State (33-14, 14-0), which has not lost a league game all season.
Friday's pitching matchup with feature a pair of right-handers in Illinois State's Brady Huffman (3-4, 4.50 ERA) and Southern Illinois' Chad Whitmer (5-34, 3.86). Saturday's starters will be Illinois State left-hander Matt Walker (0-1, 8.31) and Southern Illinois right-hander Michael Baird (4-3, 4.46). Sunday's starters have not yet been determined.
Illinois State owns an 88-85 edge in the all-time series with Southern Illinois, although the Salukis won two of three games the last time the teams met, April 22-24, 2016, at Duffy Bass Field. With Friday's game serving as the 174th all-time meeting between the two programs, Southern Illinois will become Illinois State's third most-common opponent, trailing only Bradley (218 games) and Indiana State (188 games).
Links for live video, audio and stats are available at GoRedbirds.com and fans can follow @RedbirdBaseball on Twitter for live updates and more.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
