May 17, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
For the fourth time in four seasons, a spot in the ConAgra Foods Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Tournament is at stake going into the final weekend Valley series for the Illinois State baseball team. The Redbirds have not succeeded in their attempts in the previous three seasons and will be looking to break the trend as they face the Southern Illinois Salukis in a three-game conference series at Redbird Field beginning on Thursday night.
ISU (18-32, 8-13 MVC) faces a challenge in the series, however, as it must sweep SIU (32-21, 11-10 MVC) to earn the sixth and final spot in the conference tournament. Otherwise, if the Salukis win one game in the series, they earn the final spot and will travel to Wichita, Kan., for the tournament, which begins Wed., May 24.
Redbird head coach Jim Brownlee knows how important this weekend is to his team and he is anxious to see how the team reacts to the pressure situation.
"We have not played the way we thought we would this season, but we still have a chance at reaching our goal we set before the season of reaching the conference tournament," said Brownlee. "Sweeping Southern Illinois will not be easy, as they are one of the better teams in the league. But, we played well in our last series at home against Wichita State and the player stepped up and got the job done in that series, and I think they could do the same in this series."
Freshman Ian Berger (5-5, 5.11 ERA) will have the daunting task of getting the first win of the series in the 6 p.m. opener on Thursday. The first game of series is always one that a team wants to win, but this game will be even more important for the Redbirds this weekend.
"Thursday's game is going to set the tone for the entire series," said Brownlee. "We have to take care of business early in the series if we want to pull this off. We haven't swept an opponent in a series all year, so we need to play well in that game in order to carry the momentum through the other two games."
With all three games being "must win" contests, the Redbirds control their own destiny in the three games with the Salukis. If history tells anything, the advantage could go to ISU as SIU has not won a series at Redbird Field since 1996. Brownlee believes that history does not matter much in this situation, but likes the fact that his team controls its own fate.
"In the past three seasons, we've had a chance to make the conference tournament with some help from other teams and by us winning series," said Brownlee. "This year is different because we are not relying on anyone else to help us out. It's all up to us and every player on the roster has to step up and contribute in order to achieve our goal. It should be a very interesting and exciting series for everyone involved."
