Neal Cotts,
Jared Dufault and
Mike Saunches give Illinois State University three First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference players in the same season for the first time in 20 years of Missouri Valley Conference play.
Cotts was runner-up to Northern Iowa's Nic Ungs for Valley Pitcher of the Year. The junior lefthander from Lebanon is 8-2 with a team-leading 2.39 earned run average and a league-leading 108 strikeouts. He was an honorable mention selection in 2000.
Dufault, Illinois State's right fielder, is the league's leading hitter with a .395 average, plus six home runs and 45 runs batted in. Also a first-team selection last year, the senior from Rockford is the all-time Illinois State career triples leader with 19. He also is among the all-time ISU top 10 in hits, runs and runs batted in.
Saunches, a sophomore designated hitter from Decatur, leads the Redbirds with 11 home runs and 62 runs batted in. The 62 RBI are the most in a season in Redbird history by a freshman or sophomore. Saunches hit 9 of his 11 homers against Valley opponents.
Junior outfielder/relief pitcher
Ryan Cantrell was the second-team utility player. Cantrell, a junior from Bloomington, is entering the start of the 2001 Sprint Broadband Direct Missouri Valley Conference Tournament with a .387 batting average, plus five saves and a 0.00 earned run average on the mound.
Ed Tolzien, a senior from John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, earned honorable mention status at first base. Tolzien is hitting .306 with 5 home runs, 34 RBI and a team-leading 12 steals.
The five players represented the core of a Redbird team which has won 24 of its last 33 games on the way to a 31-20 record--Illinois State's third 30-win season in the last four years under head coach
Jeff Stewart.
