May 19, 2009
Illinois State MVC Tournament Notes 
WICHITA, Kan. - Pod has been a buzz word on the Illinois State bus all season long. There were discussions about Kyle Nelson's noisy iPod, stories about Corey Maines and Burger King fryPods, and even talk about Illinois State senior middle infielders Mike Stalowy and Collin Salzenstein playing like two peas in a pod. Two weeks ago, however, the pod talk took on a different meaning after the Redbirds qualified for their first State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament since 2001.
The Redbirds open tournament play against the top-seeded Missouri State Bears at 3 p.m. Wednesday inside Eck Stadium - the second game, on the first day of a new tournament format for the Missouri Valley Conference. League coaches agreed to change the event to a two-pod, single championship game tournament with three guaranteed games and a set schedule - a shift from the double-elimination, scheduling nightmare in years past.
Illinois State, seeded sixth, will face the No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the tournament - matching up with No. 2 Indiana State Thursday at 3 p.m. and No. 3 Wichita State at 7 p.m. Friday, in addition to the game with the Bears Wednesday. The Redbirds are grouped with the Sycamores and Shockers in Pod 2 and the team with the best overall record after three days of competition will advance to Saturday's title game against the winner of Pod 1. That game will be televised on the Fox Sports Networks, starting with a pre-game show at 6:30 p.m.
The Redbirds potential climb to the title looks daunting against the top three teams in the league, including the tournament's host, but Illinois State has won a game against each squad this season and is a combined 4-3 in those series. The Redbirds used a pair of walk-off hits to hand Missouri State its first conference losses and take the series earlier this season and will need some more of the same magic the second time around with the Bears. Missouri State has won seven in a row entering Wednesday's game, including a sweep over Indiana State and Creighton.
"Everybody's excited about being here," Illinois State head coach Jim Brownlee said. "I think anything happens in this tournament. The team that play well, obviously, that gets hot in the tournament, can run away with it. The No. 1 seed doesn't always win and hasn't won very often. This is a different format and we're all going to go through it for the first time. It's interesting because we got the toughest draw, but we've played them all pretty well."
Missouri State's Brayden Drake was named the Joe Carter Player of the Year and Buddy Baumann was named the MVC Pitcher of the Year - two of seven Bears to earn MVC All-Conference recognition Monday. Illinois State had five players on the list, including Salzenstein, the second-team shortstop. The Bears finished the regular season second in the Valley with a .300 team batting average and hit a league-best 57 home runs.
Thursday, the Redbirds face Indiana State, the league's most improved team. The Sycamores lead the conference with a .318 batting average and scored 412 runs during the regular season. Four Sycamores were named to the All-MVC First Team and nine total received league recognition. Brady Shoemaker finished second in the conference with a .406 batting average overall and hit 14 home runs.
On Friday night, Illinois State takes on Wichita State in a game that's surely to draw a crowd of more than 6,000 - especially if the game has championship game implications. The Shockers are one of the top pitching teams in the conference with a 4.21 ERA and are holding opposing batters to a .266 mark. The Redbirds won their first game against the Shockers in Wichita since 1995 earlier this season, but dropped the series 2-1.
"I think you throw everything out the window when the tournament starts, that stuff doesn't make any difference," Brownlee said. "You have to go out and play your game. When we played well, we threw strikes, we hit our spots, were competitive in the batter's box, and played really good defense. We have no margin for error. If we don't do one of those things we're not going to be playing on Saturday. When we do those things we're pretty good. I know we'll play hard this week."
Illinois State, seeded sixth, will open the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament against top-seeded Missouri State at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan. at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The Redbirds will take on No. 2 seed Indiana State Thursday at 3 p.m. before playing tournament host and No. 3 seed Wichita State at 7 p.m. Friday.
