Current professional baseball players Neal Cotts and Ryan Knox will be two of nearly 30 former Redbird baseball players in town this weekend to take part in Illinois States annual alumni game, to be held Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at Redbird Field.
In his third year as head coach, Jim Brownlee has made the alumni game into one of the highlights on the Redbird baseball calendar. Numbers have grown so much this year that the alumni will play each other, instead of one alumni team taking on the current Redbirds.
Im really happy to see that we continue to build this alumni game into a bigger event every year, said Brownlee. I like this event because it gives the guys a chance to see the changes this program has made and they see the tradition that we are going to continue to build.
Registration for the event begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning at Redbird Field. Batting practice will follow at 9:00 a.m. and the first pitch will be at 10:00 a.m. Former players wishing to take part may still register Saturday morning if they missed the deadline, but are encouraged to get their early.
Its great to have Neal and Ryan back, but its also great to see everyone else that has been a part of this program, added Brownlee. Any time you can bring guys back to the program, especially guys who have played or are playing professional baseball, it really means a lot to our current players.
Cotts played the entire 2004 season with the White Sox, going 4-4 with 56 appearances. Two of the four wins came on back-to-back days, as he was the winning pitcher in Chicagos games against the Twins on September 21 and 22.
Knox spent the year in the farm system of the Milwaukee Brewers playing for the Indianapolis Indians (AAA) and the Huntsville Stars (AA). In the past month however, Milwaukee has changed their Triple-A affiliate and will now be affiliated with the Nashville Sounds.
Players scheduled to take part include: Jay Anderson, Steve Anderson, Steve Bockler, Ryan Cantrell, Neal Cotts, Jared Dufault, Wendell Good, Scott Huss, Ryan Knox, Kevin Lavery, Travis Lobbins, Brad Lueddens, Bryan Martorano, Lance McMillan, Kevin ODell, Ernie Pederson, Jake Perganson, Jim Pyfer, Jason Scherer, Dave Schoeberlein, Ed Sennett, Don Spaniak, Gary Sullivan, Jim Tague, Lynn Wade, Bruce Watson, Ron Weingartner, Kyle Zaleski and Dave Ziebert
