After seven-straight non-conference games, the Illinois State baseball team will return to its Missouri Valley Conference schedule when the Panthers of Northern Iowa come to town for a four-game series beginning Friday night at 7 p. m. at Redbird Field.
With a 17-14 record, the Panthers enter the contest in seventh place in the conference standings and are coming off a 13-6 win over Minnesota on Wednesday night. Illinois State has won seven of its last eight games, including a 7-4 victory over Iowa in its most recent outing, Wednesday. Slowly reaching .500, the Birds enter this weekend with a record of 14-18, 4-7 in the Valley while UNIs league mark stands at 5-11.
We really have to be prepared for this weekend, head coach Jeff Stewart said. With the past weekend off from conference play, we were able to improve on some things and get some more games played. Hopefully, we will just look at ourselves and go out and play like we know we can.
Brad Bouris, who is tied for 5th in the national rankings for batting with a .462 average, continues to lead a powerful Redbird offense that has also been fueled by senior Ryan Cantrell and junior Jon Peacock. Cantrells team-leading 13 doubles on the year has helped him boost his batting average to .323, one of four Redbirds batting above .300.
Peacock leads the team with seven homers on the year and is second on the team with a .358 average. After the Birds win over Iowa, the teams batting average reached .300.
Northern Iowa is going to be a very important opponent for us, Stewart continued. The rest of our conference series are going to be important, but right now this team needs to focus on our next task and that is battling with Northern Iowa.
