Sept. 19, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
With the start of the 2007 Major League Baseball playoffs only a few weeks away, Illinois State head baseball coach Jim Brownlee and his recently completed coaching staff will have the Redbird baseball team in playoff mode, with a series of intrasquad scrimmages, dubbed the "Redbird Baseball World Series," beginning Thursday, Oct. 4. Game one, which is slated to begin at 5 p.m. Oct. 4 at Redbird Field, pits members of the Redbird baseball squad against each other in a competitive environment for a traditional, seven-game playoff series.
The series, which is in its first year in the seven-game format, will continue throughout the month of October, with games scheduled for Oct. 5, 9, 11 and 16, beginning at 5 p.m. The games slated for Sunday, Oct. 14 and Wednesday, Oct. 17 will begin at 10 a.m. and 3:15 p.m., respectively.
The Redbird baseball team will split into two squads for the series, with one team wearing red and the other wearing white. Teams will be matched evenly and chosen by the players on the team. Senior members will serve as the captains for both squads, with assistant baseball coaches Tim Brownlee and Mike Current serving as the mentors for each side.
Brownlee is excited for this year's edition of the Redbird Baseball World Series, and feels that the extra games will give the coaching staff the opportunity to see how the players have progressed since the end of last season.
"I think since we don't get the opportunity to play against outside competition, it gives us a chance to evaluate our guys in a real competitive situation," said Brownlee. "We will also use the scrimmages to see if the players picked up on what we taught them throughout the five weeks of practice during the fall. I think it's good because it brings a conclusion to fall baseball and it gives our coaches time to evaluate the players.
"This is the first time we have played seven games, and I think at that point in the fall, the guys are ready to play games. I think it will bring a high level of competition because the guys will be on the same team for seven games, and we let the seniors pick the teams. It gets as competitive as it can get without playing the games against outside competition."
