Sept. 16, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Redbird softball team will travel to the Chicago suburbs on Sunday to compete in the Orland Park Tournament. Illinois State will compete against Illinois, Northern Illinois and Western Illinois, three teams it will face in the 2006 season. In 2005, the `Birds went 2-1 against those foes.
"This weekend we'll be trying to see what our players can do in combination with one another," head coach Melinda Fischer said. "We got good contributions from our new players last weekend and we hope that continues up at Orland Park.
"We haven't been able to do a lot this week because of the weather, but we did add a few things on Monday. We'll be able to tell what our players are retaining from practice and what we need to emphasize more.
Injuries continue to plague the Redbirds, as they did last week for the Illinois State Fall Tournament.
"We've still got some players who won't be playable this weekend," Fischer said. "I think we'll be able to get Jessica (Wapotish) in to run some, and she may play some defense too. But we're still without Jackie (Williams), Sheila (Emms) and Randi (Patton)."
Last week the `Birds went 4-1 in their own fall tournament, including a 7-3 win over Missouri Valley Conference rival Southern Illinois. The team's only loss came at the hands of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (6-5) in the final game.
Illinois State will take on Illinois at 10 a.m. at Centennial Park. Then the `Birds face Northern Illinois at 2 p.m., and wrap up the tournament with a 4 p.m. match-up against Western Illinois.
