Oct. 11, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
For the fourth straight year, the Illinois State baseball team ended its fall workouts with a game against former Redbird players Saturday, October 8, at Redbird Field. Former Redbirds Kevin O'Dell (`03), Howie Frank (`03), Ryan Cantrell (`02) and Josh Kauten (`04) teamed up with other former `Birds to defeat the current team 10-2 in the annual game, which was preceded by the first ever Alumni Golf Outing at El Paso Country Club on Friday.
Head coach Jim Brownlee started the golf outing this year to give alumni an extra opportunity to catch up with their former teammates and friends along with giving them a chance to find out about the current squad. Brownlee's teammate on the 1969 College Division National Championship team, Guy Homoly, won the golf outing with three other friends with a score of six under par. The team of Gordon Murphy, Gary Sullivan and Clyde Odle finished second with a score of four under par, and the team led by Jake Perganson came in third, after not turning in a scorecard.
Brownlee believes the golf outing was such a success that it will stay in the plans for future alumni weekends.
"The golf outing was great and everyone had a great time," said Brownlee. "It just gave some of the guys who didn't feel up to playing in the baseball game a chance to be involved. Based on this year's success, we're hoping to keep the outing going and have even more people there next year."
However, the alumni game was the capper on the weekend festivities and the fans in the stands were not disappointed in the show. Ralph Pasley (`40) threw out the ceremonial first pitch to begin the game in his first time back on the field in years as a Redbird. The game itself was dominated by the alumni, who played with the current ISU freshman for some depth. Highlighting the game was the match up between Frank, who pitched four innings for the alumni, and his brother Chris, a senior on this year's squad. Chris Frank took the bragging rights early with a single up the middle off his older brother. However, the elder Frank would got his younger brother to pop out in his second at-bat.
Overall, Brownlee thought the weekend was a success and can't wait until next year's alumni weekend.
"The alumni weekend is always one of my favorite events of the year," said Brownlee. "The alumni get a chance to see if they still have what it takes to play and compete as hard as they did when they played here. The current players also get the chance to meet some of the guys that built this program into what it is today. The weekend gets better every year and we hope next year is bigger and better than the previous four."
Alumni weekend 2006 is scheduled for October 13-14, sharing the weekend once again with ISU's Homecoming festivities.
