March 17, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
NORMAL, Ill. -
After a successful spring trip to the state of Florida, junior Kevin Dubler and the Illinois State baseball team will look to continue to build momentum toward the start of the Missouri Valley Conference slate. The Redbirds will travel to Chicago to take on in-state rival Illinois-Chicago Tuesday at Les Miller Field at 4:05 p.m., in the Redbirds' final tune-up before league play begins this weekend.
The Redbirds enter Tuesday's game with a 9-5 record overall, and posted an impressive 6-2 record during the 10-day trip to "The Sunshine State." Illinois State is currently on a five-game winning streak, as ISU won all of its games at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. Senior Tyler Cox (2-0, 6.00 ERA) will take the mound, and looks to pick up his third win of the season. Cox went 5.2 innings and struck out a career-high six batters in his last start, a 13-6 victory over Bucknell Wednesday.
Illinois State head coach Jim Brownlee has seen a lot of improvement from the Redbirds so far this season, as well as a shift in attitude when the players come to the ballpark each game.
"I will look for us to continue to build on what we accomplished last week," said Brownlee. "I thought we improved a lot, and I thought our team chemistry has been very good. One of the things that I noticed as last week progressed and we started winning was that we began to come to the ballpark expecting to win. I have always said that winning is contagious, and I think our attitude in the dugout was that we were going to win. We won a lot of close games, and we will want to continue to build on that now we are getting ready for the start of the conference schedule."
The Redbirds face an Illinois-Chicago (5-7) team that won two-of-three games against cross-town rival Northwestern last weekend. The Flames are expected to send sophomore right-hander Peter Ifft to the mound Tuesday. Ifft has only appeared in two games so far this season for a total of 2.0 innings.
Live statistics will be available on GoRedbirds.com for Tuesday's game in Chicago. Live streaming audio, courtesy of Illinois-Chicago Athletics, will also be available on GoRedbirds.com.
