With the final weekend of the Valley season approaching, Illinois State will play its last non-conference game of the season on Wednesday, May 19, when they host the Iowa Hawkeyes at 6:00 p.m. at Redbird Field.
The Redbirds have a four-game series Thursday, Friday and Saturday with Bradley, in a weekend that will determine whether Illinois State will play in the post-season tournament. The Redbirds will need to win at least three to have a chance at getting in and hope to gain some momentum against Iowa.
Now that the season is coming to a close, its good to be playing games at this time of year, said head coach Jim Brownlee. The Iowa game is important because we have so many underclassman that will be back next year, it gives us one last chance to evaluate them.
Illinois State (19-31) and Iowa (17-32) played on April 6 in Iowa City, Iowa. After taking the lead late in the game, the Redbirds blew the lead in the bottom of the ninth, giving Iowa a 11-10 win.
Kitt Kopach (0-0) will make the start for the Redbirds. Kopach took to the hill for his first collegiate start last Wednesday against Murray State, but the game was rained out nearly as soon as it got underway.
This is a good opportunity for Kitt Kopach, said Brownlee. He is a guy that we are counting on to be a major part of our pitching rotation in the future, so we need to get him some innings now. We have a lot of young arms that will be back, so thats why these late season midweek games are played.
The game with Iowa will be broadcast on www.wjbc2.com, with pregame beginning at 5:45 p.m. Gametracker will also be available bo logging on to www.redbirds.org.
