After handily defeating Purdue on Wednesday to end a six-game skid, Illinois State looks to continue their winning ways this weekend when they play a four-game series in Omaha against the Valleys second place team, the Creighton Bluejays.
Illinois State (10-17, 4-8) defeated Purdue 14-6 on Wednesday behind a full-team effort. Every starter got a hit for the Redbirds and nearly every starter scored. Jeremy Pickrel had an outstanding game for ISU, as he went 3-5 with four RBI, two runs scored, one home run and three stolen bases. Freshman Dan Frega picked up his first career win in the game as well.
Creighton (16-13, 6-1) is led by one of the top pitchers in the Valley in senior righthander Steve Grasley. Grasley is 6-3 with a 3.05 ERA and will make the start on Friday for CU. The Bluejays defeated Wisconsin-Milwaukee 8-4 on Wednesday.
This is a very important weekend for us, said head coach Jim Brownlee. Creighton has really good pitching but theyre an average hitting team. I do think we match up well with them, so it should be an interesting weekend.
Senior Todd Stein will make the start on Friday at 3:00 p.m., for Illinois State. In Saturdays doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m., Kyle Bloom will start game one and Josh Kauten will start game two for ISU. Sundays starter is TBA.
We knew at the beginning of the year that this would be a very important stretch of the season, said Brownlee. Beginning with the Purdue game, we will play nine of our next 10 on the road, so well have to play well.
Fridays game will be available on Gametracker, via www.redbirds.org.
