March 29, 2012
Illinois State begins the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference baseball season this weekend with a three-game series at Indiana State, beginning Friday at 5:30 p.m.
"We're excited for conference play to start," Redbird baseball coach Mark Kingston said. "This is a tremendous league, and we begin with a very hot team in Indiana State. It should be a great challenge."
Illinois State (16-6, 0-0 MVC) has won three-straight games, and six of its last seven. The Sycamores (21-5, 2-1 MVC) have won 16 of their last 17, including three in a row. Indiana State had a 13-game winning streak snapped by Evansville in its MVC series opener last weekend. The Sycamores took two out of three games against the Purple Aces in Evansville, Ind.
Indiana State also won two mid-week games against Illinois Springfield and Ball State. Meanwhile, the Redbirds won both of their non-conference matchups last weekend versus MacMurray and Webster. Illinois State is coming off of a 16-7, come-from-behind, victory against Illinois Tuesday.
Ty Wiesemeyer continues to lead Illinois State's offense with a .405 average, including a team-best .495 on-base percentage. Kevin Tokarski had a seven-RBI performance Tuesday, including a grand slam to give Illinois State the lead against Illinois. Tokarski also tied the career-runs record Wednesday with his 184th run scored. With at least one more run at Indiana State, he will surpass Seth Von Behren for the record. Tokarski also needs to walk one more time to tie the career-walks mark set by Ryan Duncheon.
Indiana State's offense is led by Jeremy Lucas who is batting .404 with a team-high 34 RBI, including six home runs, four doubles and one triple. Illinois State will counter the Sycamores with the weekend pitching combination of Chris Razo (3-1, 6.16 ERA), Brad Sorkin (1-1, 4.25 ERA) and Dylan Craig (4-0, 4.76 ERA), respectively. Indiana State will answer with Dakota Bacus (4-1, 1.69 ERA), Sean Manaea (2-1, 4.58 ERA) and Ryan Torgerson (4-0, 1.96 ERA).
Live audio of Saturday and Sunday's games can be heard on WHOW 1520 AM / 92.3 FM, and on GoRedbirds.com and WJBC.com.
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