NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State baseball team will play its first home conference games when it welcomes Evansville to Duffy Bass Field for a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series, beginning Friday.
Friday's series opener is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. The series will continue Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest and conclude with a 1 p.m. series finale on Sunday.
Illinois State (10-21, 0-3 MVC) will play its first league games since being swept in a three-game series at Dallas Baptist two weeks ago. The Redbirds most recently split a pair of midweek games, falling to Illinois by a 6-5 score in 10 innings on Tuesday, before bouncing back with a 7-5 win over Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday in the annual Horenberger-Bass Classic.
Evansville (10-22, 1-5 MVC) dropped two games of a three-game series with Indiana State last weekend, in the Purple Aces' most recent games. Evansville won last Saturday's contest by a 4-1 score, but lost on Friday and Sunday, by counts of 9-1 and 5-3, respectively.
Illinois State won its regular-season series at Evansville last year, by taking two of three games, but the Purple Aces got their revenge in the MVC Tournament, earning a 4-3 walk-off win in the 10th inning of an elimination game on May 26, 2016. Illinois State owns a 61-48-1 edge in the all-time series with Evansville.
Illinois State will use the weekend pitching rotation of right-handers Jeffrey Barton (0-2, 3.31 ERA) and Brady Huffman (2-1, 3.72), and left-hander Brent Headrick (1-2, 4.80). Evansville will go with the right-handed trio of Patrick Schnieders (2-4, 3.46), Connor Strain (1-2, 3.58) and Justin Hayden (2-5, 7.23).
All three games of the series – and all Illinois State home baseball games – feature free admission.
All three games will also be broadcast live on ESPN3, and links for live video, audio and stats are available at GoRedbirds.com. Fans can also follow @RedbirdBaseball on Twitter for live updates and more.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
