April 24, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State will match-up with St. Xavier for a Sunday doubleheader beginning at noon at Duffy Bass Field, the second-to-last non-conference home games for the Redbirds as the regular season nears its final month. The Redbirds, winners of their last six Missouri Valley Conference games, got a break from league play and split a pair of road games against Big Ten opponents during the week.
Illinois State (19-16, 8-1 MVC) will face a stern test from one of the hottest teams in the NAIA ranks, as the Cougars (27-12-1, 15-6 CCAC) entered the weekend on the heels of eight-consecutive wins. St. Xavier made it nine in a row with a win over Trinity Christian College Friday and were scheduled to play a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m. St. Xavier boasts four regulars who are hitting around .400, including Matt Erickson, who leads the team with a .443 average, and Ken Tezak (.399), who leads the Cougars with 12 home runs and 68 RBI.
The Redbirds travel across Bloomington-Normal city limits Tuesday for the annual Horenberger-Bass Classic at Illinois Wesleyan at 6 p.m., before hosting Wichita State for a clash of the top two teams in the Missouri Valley Conference next weekend at Duffy Bass Field (April 30-May 2).
Last Time Out
Illinois State split a pair of mid-week contests against Big Ten foes, defeating Illinois, 4-1, at Illinois Field Tuesday, before a 3-1 loss at Northwestern Wednesday. JD Learnard pitched an Illinois State season-high 7.2 innings to earn the win against the Fighting Illini, and Kenny Long went the rest of the way to notch his fifth save of the season. The Redbirds stranded 10 baserunners on the road at Evanston and scored just one run against Northwestern.
The Opponent: St. Xavier Cougars
• St. Xavier University is located in Orland Park, Ill., and has an enrollment of 5,057. The Cougars are members of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference and compete under the umbrella of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
• St. Xavier was 41-15 last season and advanced to the 2009 NAIA Opening Round Tournament. The Cougars were 27-12-1 heading into a doubleheader with Trinity Christian College Saturday, and have rattled off nine-consecutive wins including three run-rule shortened games.
• The Cougars are coached by Mike Dooley (Lewis '72), who has led the Cougars since the 1993 season. Dooley entered the 2010 season with a 662-388-1 overall record.
• St. Xavier holds a 12-11 edge in the all-time series with Illinois State, a series that started in 1989. The last time these two programs met was in 2007, a 2-1 series victory for Illinois State. Current Redbird pitcher Jim Sajewich earned the win in the series finale, a 2-1, 11-inning contest (May 6). The Redbirds have won nine of the last 11 games in the series going back to 1998.
One of the Best
Opponents are having a hard time keeping Kevin Tokarski off the base paths as the Redbird second baseman reached 10 times and scored six runs during last week's games. Tokarski went 7-for-12 (.583) at the plate to raise his league-leading batting average to .465, and walked three times to yield a .667 on base percentage for the week. Tokarksi scored the game winning run on a walk-off single by Anthony Ruffolo in the bottom of the ninth in Friday's series-opening win over Southern Illinois, and helped the Redbirds sweep their second-consecutive conference series by driving in the go-ahead runs with a double in the bottom of the eighth in Sunday's game. Tokarski hit three doubles last week and leads the Valley with 20 on the season. He's three doubles shy of tying the single-season mark at Illinois State, and sits three steals away from tying the Redbirds' career mark for stolen bases.
Long's Relief
Redbird reliever Kenny Long earned the win in all three games over the weekend as Illinois State swept Southern Illinois to extend its Missouri Valley Conference winning streak to six games. The sophomore left-hander became the first Redbird pitcher ever to win three games in a Valley series. Long struck out nine batters in five innings and was unhittable - allowing just one base runner on a walk in Sunday's series finale. The Fox River Grove, Ill., native was especially tough on the Saluki's No. 3 and No. 4 hitters in the lineup, as they went a combined 0-for-6 with five strikeouts.
Drama Anyone?
Illinois State didn't have a walk-off hit prior to last weekend's series with Southern Illinois, but the Redbirds used two of them, and more late inning heroics in Sunday's series finale, to sweep the Salukis. In Friday night's game, designated hitter Anthony Ruffolo hit a ball over the centerfielder's head to plate Kevin Tokarski and give Illinois State a 6-5 win. Saturday, Tyler McNeely hit a three-run shot to centerfield to lift Illinois State to a 6-3 victory, and in Sunday's game, Illinois State erased a two-run deficit with four runs in the bottom of the eighth to win 9-7. Ruffolo's hit was Illinois State's first walk-off since the last regular season series of 2009, and McNeely's home run was the first walk-off home run since Corey Maines homered in extra innings against Evansville on opening night at the new stadium at Duffy Bass Field (3/20/09).
Role Reversal
Illinois State went a combined 0-6 against Creighton and Southern Illinois during a rough two-weekend stretch towards the end of last season, but flipped the script this season. The league-leading Redbirds have won six consecutive conference contests, including the first ever sweep of the Bluejays in Omaha and a series sweep over Southern Illinois at Duffy Bass Field last weekend.
