April 23, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
After playing eight-straight home games at Redbird Field, the Illinois State baseball team (17-20, 8-7 MVC) will begin a five-game road swing on Tuesday in Iowa City, Iowa, against the Iowa Hawkeyes and then continue with a mid-week contest against Eastern Illinois on Wednesday in Charleston, Ill.
Redbird head coach Jim Brownlee knows the two mid-week contests will be tough tasks, but he likes his team's chances with a rested pitching staff.
"I'm excited about the next two games because we will have a lot of options with our pitching staff," said Brownlee. "In the past couple of mid-week games, we were very limited as to who could pitch. But, because we only used five arms last weekend against Evansville, we have a lot of guys who are rested and should pitch well for us on Tuesday and Wednesday."
First up will be Iowa on Tuesday, who won the first game of the home-and-home series this season, 15-3, at Redbird Field on March 28. Iowa is coming off a 3-1 weekend series win over Big Ten foe Illinois and dropped the first game of the series, before sweeping a Saturday doubleheader and earning a 17-12 win in the series finale on Sunday.
A Wednesday match up with Eastern Illinois will follow for the Redbirds. The Panthers earned a 12-9 win over ISU last year at Redbird Field on April 26 and they will face the `Birds after a Tuesday contest at Illinois. Overall, the Panthers have won 13 out of their last 18 games.
"We want to get a little bit of momentum built up this week," said Brownlee. "I thought we played well against Evansville and I thought our pitching did a tremendous job, but we didn't get rewarded. Iowa will be a tough game on Tuesday because of the way they are swinging the bats and they are coming off a big series win over Illinois. Then, on Wednesday we have to head to Charleston to face a good Eastern Illinois team on their home field. It should be a challenging week, but we are looking forward to it."
Junior left-hander Tyler Cox (2-0) will start on the mound against Iowa on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Senior right-hander Luke Baughman (0-4) will follow on the hill on Wednesday against Eastern Illinois, with the first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.
