March 8, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
As the rest of campus is set to travel to warm destinations and enjoy its spring break, the Illinois State baseball team cannot rest as the Redbirds begin a 10-day road trip in which they will play eight games, starting with three this weekend at Southeast Missouri State.
The trip will kick off with a three-game series at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Mo., March 9-11. After the weekend, ISU will use Monday as a travel day en route to Memphis, Tenn., to take on the Memphis Tigers for games on March 13-14. The trip will conclude with a three-game weekend series in St. Louis, Mo., March 16-18, when the `Birds will face off against the Saint Louis Billikens.
Playing eight games in 10 days will no doubt put a strain on the ISU players, but head coach Jim Brownlee wants to look at the trip as a time to improve.
"The first three weekends on the road have been good for us and we are really looking forward to getting more practice time outside," said Brownlee. "This is a great opportunity for us to build on our pitching staff and get guys some innings who have not pitched a lot at this point. We've struggled in the bullpen and this trip will allow us to iron out the problems and get them corrected before we start Missouri Valley Conference play."
The Redhawks (7-3) are winners of five of their last six games, picking up a win on Wednesday against Saint Louis. Junior Eric Theisen (1-2, 4.15 ERA) will take the mound in the opener on Friday at 3 p.m. against the SEMO, with freshman Ryan Copeland (1-1, 7.85 ERA) following on the hill on Saturday at 1 p.m. Senior Luke Baughman (0-1, 6.48 ERA) will conclude the three-game set on Sunday at 1 p.m. before the Redbirds travel to Memphis to continue the road trip.
With all three teams matching up well with ISU, Brownlee hopes his team can continue to play well on the road.
"We played very good teams our first three weekends and I think that will prepare us for these teams well," said Brownlee. "All of the teams on this trip play hard and can beat their opponents, so we can't look past these teams and we have to just buckle down and play Redbird baseball."
