NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State baseball team looks to carry momentum gained from its win over No. 12 Missouri State into the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, as the Redbirds begin play at the conference tourney at Hammons Field Wednesday.
Illinois State (13-38, 2-18), the tournament's No. 8 seed, will open up against host No. 1 Missouri State (37-15, 18-1) in a rematch of both teams' most-recent series, held May 18-19 at Duffy Bass Field in Normal, Illinois.
Missouri State earned an 8-5 win over the Redbirds in the first game of the series on Thursday, but the Redbirds came back with an 8-4 victory over the Bears on Friday. The Redbird win marked the first league loss suffered by Missouri State, who was the only remaining team in Division I baseball without a conference loss. Sunday's game was rained out.
Illinois State's victory over Missouri State on Friday was the team's first over a ranked opponent since Feb. 27, 2016, when the Redbirds scored a 3-2 win over then-No. 9 Oregon at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon.
The Redbirds will start right-hander Brady Huffman (3-5, 4.79 ERA) in Wednesday's game versus the Bears. Illinois State will play either No. 4 Southern Illinois (27-28, 10-10) or No. 5 Wichita State (27-27, 10-11) on Thursday. Left-hander Matt Walker (1-2, 7.14) will get the start for Illinois State in that game, fresh off a stellar outing against Missouri State. Walker tossed six shutout innings in the Redbirds' win over the Bears and was named the MVC Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
Every game from the MVC Tournament will be broadcast live on ESPN3, and links for live stats and video are available at GoRedbirds.com. The tournament bracket and ticketing information can be found on the MVC website at mvc-sports.com. Fans can also 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.
