May 18, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
With the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament scheduled to begin next Tuesday, the Illinois State baseball team hosts Evansville for its final MVC regular-season series Thursday at 4:30 p.m., Friday at 4:30 p.m. (rescheduled from an original 2 p.m. start) and Saturday at 1 p.m.
ISU (32-16, 10-8 MVC) enters the three-game set in fourth place, while Evansville (28-20, 7-10 MVC) is sixth in the Valley. The Redbirds are two games behind league-leading Creighton.
"We want to finish the regular season strong," Illinois State head coach Mark Kingston said. "Evansville is another great opponent. They can really hit, they have good starting pitching and they are an overall athletic team. This is a team that we want to play well against as we prepare ourselves for the conference tournament."
Redbird seniors Zach Amrein, Josh Colon, Ryan Court, Corey Maines, Tyler McNeely, Matt Werderitch and Jacob Wielebnicki, along with student assistant coach Mark Evans, will each compete in their final three games ever at Duffy Bass Field in Normal, Ill. The seniors will be recognized prior to Saturday's season-finale.
Illinois State looks to extend a three-game winning streak, after taking 2-of-3 at Southern Illinois last weekend before beating Western Illinois Tuesday afternoon in the Redbirds' final non-conference mid-week game of the season. Court will try to extend a team-best nine-game hitting streak, after batting .421 with three RBI, including a home run and a double against SIU and WIU. As a team, the Redbirds are hitting .277, while Evansville is collectively batting .288.
The Purple Aces are led by Cody Fick, who ranks second in the league with a .403 batting average and first in the Valley with 68 RBI. Evansville is expected to throw Kyle Lloyd (4-5) Thursday and Cole Isom (5-5) Friday, while Saturday's starter is yet to be determined. The Redbirds will counter with their usual weekend rotation of Corey Maines (8-3) Thursday, Dan Savas (3-4) Friday and JD Learnard (7-2) Saturday. ISU pitchers have combined for a 3.28 team-ERA compared to Evansville's 4.10.
As an added incentive for fans to cheer on the Redbirds during their final regular-season series, Thursday is buck day at Duffy Bass Field, which means tickets and hot dogs are only $1 each. Additionally, ice cream sundaes in Redbird mini helmets will be available for purchase during the entire Evansville series.
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