Jeff Stewart, Illinois States head baseball coach, gave high remarks regarding Indiana States pitching staff but if his Redbirds can find a way around the Sycamore hurlers, or at least figure out their strategies, he thinks his team can come home with some wins after a four-game Valley series slated for this weekend, April 26-28. Fridays series opener begins at 7 p.m. at Sycamore Field in Terre Haute, Ind.
Indiana State has a real good pitching staff and talented starting pitchers, Stewart said. They perform well out of the bullpen so our job this weekend will be to find a way of figuring out the pitching staff.
With wins in 10 of its last 12 games, Illinois State (17-19, 7-8) continues to try and conquer opposing pitchers and has improved upon that in its recent outings. After a four-game series against Northern Iowa last weekend, where the Birds took three-of-four, they have moved into sixth place in the conference standings and are one win and spot behind the Sycamores (20-15, 8-8).
This is a big weekend for us, but we say that every weekend, Stewart continued. Now is the time we have to step up and play to our ability. It is coming down to the end of the season and every game counts. I think we have gotten some of our veterans up to speed and now some of our younger guys are starting to perform well in the league.
With Illinois States game cancelled Wednesday due to severe weather, the Birds have had a full week off from competition for the first time since playing two weekend tournaments to start the season on Feb. 23 and March 1. Indiana State defeated Xavier, 9-8, on Tuesday, April 23 and was scheduled to play Eastern Illinois on April 24, but it was cancelled due to weather also.
Obviously we would have liked to have played last night, Stewart said. Getting rained out is never a good thing and getting more at bats is important for this team. But Indiana State was rained out also so now we just have to utilize our practice time.
To start the Sycamore series, the Redbird defense will look to the strong arm of Mike Quinlan (2-2, 3.92 ERA), the Birds probable starter on the mound Friday, and offensively, will follow the bats of Brad Bouris and Jon Peacock. Still ranked nationally for the third-straight week (9th), Bouris .452 batting average ranks first on the team and in the league while Peacocks seven homers is a team high.
I think the consistency has started to come around with the bats, Stewart concluded. But with such a young pitching staff, it is important to gain consistency in all aspects of our game to be able to make a good run to close the regular season.
