After shutting out Eastern Illinois on Tuesday afternoon, the Illinois State baseball team plays its first home conference series this weekend against Creighton at Redbird Field.
Creighton comes to town 9-12, 2-6 in Valley play, after dropping a game Wednesday afternoon 9-1 to Kansas State.
Its important for us to get on a winning track, especially at home, Redbird head coach Jeff Stewart said of his 8-11, 0-4 squad. Creighton is a very formidable opponent and well have to play some of our best baseball to win.
If we can jump on them in the first game, I think they will be really down, Stewart added.
Junior Neal Cotts, the team leader in strikeouts with 36 in 24 innings of work, will take the hill for Fridays game. Steve Hecker will pitch the first game of Saturdays doubleheader while either Matt Hines or Neil Johnson will be on the mound for game two with Hines or Johnson getting the call in the final game on Sunday.
Creighton owns a 44-25 advantage in the series and claimed three of the four meeting between the two clubs last year at Omaha. The Birds took the opening game of the 2000 series 4-2, but then dropped the next three game 2-8, 8-9, 3-4.
The series begins at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon. A doubleheader is slated for noon on Saturday beginning with a seven inning contest while the finale starts at 1 p.m. Sunday.
