Redbirds Face In-State Foes in Back-to-Back Games

NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State Redbirds will play a pair of in-state foes on Tuesday, April 10 and Wednesday, April 11 when the squad travels to play at Illinois on Tuesday afternoon, and host St. Francis on Wednesday at Duffy Bass Field.

vs. Illinois | Tuesday, April 10 | 4 p.m.
Live Video: BTN2Go ($)
Live Audio: WZND
Live Stats: FightingIllini.com
Illinois State Starting Pitcher: Kyle Pauly, 0-1, 8.53 ERA
Illinois Starting Pitcher: Jackson Douglas, 0-0, 4.26 ERA

vs. St. Francis | Wednesday, April 11 | 3 p.m.
Live Video: None
Live Audio: None
Live Stats: Illinois State StatBroadcast
Illinois State Starting Pitcher: Jack Spicer, 0-0, 0.00 ERA
St. Francis Starting Pitcher: TBA

WALK-OFF WINNER

For the second consecutive weekend, the Illinois State Redbirds used a walk-off victory on get-away day for the opponent. Against Southern Illinois, Owen Miller doubled home John Rave for the walk-off win, while against Dallas Baptist, it was a Ryan Hutchinson fielder's choice that scored Jordan Libman and gave the Redbirds the series-ending win..

RAVE REVIEWS

After recording a hit in all three of the team's games against Dallas Baptist, John Rave has increased his hitting streak to 17 games on the season. That is the second-longest by a Redbird batter since 2004, as current St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Paul DeJong had an 18-game hit streak during the 2014 season. The Redbirds have had 32 different batters with 10+ game hit streaks since 2004, including three this season (Collin Braithwaite, 13 games; Owen Miller, 12 games).

REDBIRD BATS ON FIRE

This season, through 26 games, the Redbird bats have been on fire. The team ranks in the top-75 in six offensive categories including doubles per game (8th, 2.46), scoring per game (18th, 7.3), total doubles (27th, 64), home runs per game (35th, 1.00), slugging percentage (38th, .439), fielding percentage (41st, .976), and home runs (58th, 26). Individually, John Rave ranks 18th in hits per game (1.62), Collin Braithwaite ranks 19th in doubles per game (0.46), and Owen Miller ranks 44th in runs per game (1.08).

GOING DEEP

One thing aiding in Illinois State run production is the amount of home runs hit by the Redbirds. Through 26 games, ISU is in 2nd in the MVC with 26 home runs on the season behind Dallas Baptist (38). That amount is higher than the 24 total the team hit all last season in 2017. Eight different players have hit at least two each for ISU in Nick Zouras, John Rave, Noah Sadler, Owen Miller, Joe Aeilts, Derek Parola, Collin Braithwaite, and Joe Butler. Every person on the squad that has hit at least one home run, has at least two.

FREQUENT FLYER MILES

Illinois State traveled further west than in any other time in program history when it faced Hawai'i (March 15th-17th). Before that, Illinois State flew to Washington for a four game series. The Redbirds stopped in San Francisco as well before getting on a connecting flight to the island where they ultimately got swept by the Rainbow Warriors.

SERIES WINS OVER PAC-12

With Illinois State's series victory over Washington (three wins in four games), the Redbirds recorded the fifth series win for the MVC all-time against a team from the Pac-12, and just the second to do it on the road. The most recent series win over the Pac-12 came from Missouri State who took two of three at Oregon State. The other three series wins came from former member Wichita State who swept USC in 2006 at home, swept Washington at home in 1996, and won 2-of-3 at home against Arizona State in 1982.

EXTRA INNINGS, TWO STRAIGHT

Against Dallas Baptist, Illinois State had back-to-back games of extra innings. The team fell in 10 innings in the middle game of the series, before turning around with a walk-off win in the series finale. The games were the first extra-inning games for Illinois State since April 15 a season ago against Evansville, and was the first extra inning win since May 1, 2016, also against Evansville. The win over DBU snapped a seven-game extra-inning losing skid. It was also the first time since 2014 where Illinois State had back-to-back games to into extra innings. In that situation - on April 25 and 26 against Southern Illinois - the Redbirds won both games.