NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State Redbirds are home for their final time of the 2018 season when the squad hosts the Valparaiso Crusaders in a three-game series starting on Friday evening at Duffy Bass Field.
Friday, May 11 | 6 p.m.
Live Audio:
WZND
Live Stats:
Illinois State StatBroadcast
Illinois State Starting Pitcher:
Brady Huffman, RHP, 1-3, 4.76 ERA
Valparaiso Starting Pitcher: Jon Tieman, RHP, 4-4, 4.86 ERA
Saturday, May 12 | 2 p.m. ** Senior Day **
Live Audio:
WZND
Live Stats:
Illinois State StatBroadcast
Illinois State Starting Pitcher:
Brent Headrick, LHP, 2-6, 6.23 ERA
Valparaiso Starting Pitcher: Trey Ferketic, RHP, 4-4, 5.46 ERA
Sunday, May 13 | 1 p.m. ** Mothers Day **
Live Audio:
WZND
Live Stats:
Illinois State StatBroadcast
Illinois State Starting Pitcher:
Matt Walker, LHP, 4-2, 5.11 ERA
Valparaiso Starting Pitcher: Wes Gordon, RHP, 2-5, 5.72 ERA
SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS (16-27, 5-10 MVC)
Valparaiso comes into the weekend having dropped five of its last six MVC games, and are 2-7 in the program's last nine games. The two wins in that span came on a 9-2 home win in the series finale against Dallas Baptist, and an 18-13 win over Western Michigan on Wednesday.
Offensively the Crusaders are batting .281 as a team over the 43-game season, and are led by the duo of Blake Billinger and Zack Leone. Billinger is batting .357 this year with a team-best 21 doubles and 41 RBI's. Leone has hitting .351 and has drawn 31 free passes (23 walks, eight hit by pitches), against just 17 strikeouts. Sam Shakin has scored a team-best 48 runs, while Giovanni Garbella has eight home runs.
The pitching staff is led by Friday starter Jon Tieman, who has pitched a team-leading 79.2 innings, including a complete game. he has a 4.86 ERA to go along with four wins and a team-best 47 strikeouts. Trey Ferketic, the Saturday starter, is second on the team with 45 strikeouts in 64.1 innings, and is tied for the team lead in wins with four (4-4).Â
SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
Illinois State is batting .272 as a team, and has three of its regular players batting above .300, and another just off of the pace. The team comes into the weekend after final exams having won four of its last six games, and is 3-2 in the month of May.
Leading the way for the Redbirds is junior shortstop
Owen Miller, who is batting .374, while also leading the team with seven stolen bases.
John Rave is batting .355, and has team-highs in runs (40), doubles (16), triples (3), home runs (6), and RBI's (41).
Jack Butler is also batting over .300 at .333 in 48 at-bats.
Collin Braithwaite, who was recently named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Team, is hitting .283 with 33 runs scored, and 33 driven in, while also leading the team with 23 drawn walks.
The pitching staff is led by the sophomore trio of
Brady Huffman (1-3, 4.75 ERA),
Matt Walker (4-2, 5.11 ERA), and
Brent Headrick (2-6, 6.23 ERA). Huffman holds the narrow lead of the trio in strikeouts with 52, as Walker has 49 and Headrick 48. Out of the bullpen,
Trevor Cross has struck out 44 batters in 32.1 innings, while
Michael Sebby is 3-1 with 25 strikeouts in 18.1 innings of work and 15 appearances.
