March 30, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State baseball team will welcome a pair of Big 10 opponents to Duffy Bass Field in mid-week, non-conference action beginning Tuesday with Illinois at 4:30 p.m. The Redbirds will match-up with Iowa Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The Redbirds are coming off an abbreviated weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference that saw Illinois State (11-7, 3-1 MVC) defeat Indiana State on Friday, 11-6, before the final two games of the series were cancelled due to poor weather conditions.
Ryan Copeland, whose Saturday start against the Sycamores got washed out, is expected to pitch for the Redbirds in Tuesday's game against Illinois. Copeland (2-2, 2.23 ERA) will likely face the Fighting Illini's Phil Haig (3-0, 1.67) in a match-up of left-handed hurlers. Quinn Ewert is slated to throw against Iowa's Zach Robertson Wednesday.
Illinois State enters the mid-week contests as winners of nine of its last 12 games. The Redbirds' 11 run, 14 hit outburst against Indiana State boosted the team's overall batting average to .282 while the pitching staff has posted a 4.23 ERA through 18 games. Evan Kohli remains the team's batting leader with a .364 average but Tyler McNeely's four hit performance Friday that included a double and a triple boosted his average to .344.
The Fighting Illini have won four in a row, including a sweep over Michigan State to open Big 10 Conference play last weekend. Illinois (16-5, 3-0 Big 10) is ranked No. 26 in the Collegiate Baseball News poll and took two out of three games from then No. 1-ranked LSU at the beginning of March. The Fighting Illini are hitting .324 as a team and have five regular players hitting over .350.
Iowa dropped eight of its first 10 games but has undergone a resurgence lately to post a 9-12 overall record and 1-2 mark in Big 10 play. The Hawkeyes lost two out of three to Michigan over the weekend despite each game being decided by two runs or less. After 21 games, the Hawkeyes were batting .287 and had stolen 32 bases. Illinois State head coach Jim Brownlee is the father of Iowa assistant coach Ryan Brownlee.
The Redbirds resume Missouri Valley Conference competition next weekend when they travel to Wichita State for a three-game, weekend series (April 3-5).
