NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State baseball program announced its 2022 schedule on Wednesday, which features a program-record 16 games against Power Five opponents.
The Redbirds will open 2022 with a three-game set at Arkansas, which spent the majority of the 2021 season ranked in the top-five and many weeks as the country's top-ranked team.
After 10 more road contests, the ISU's home-opening series comes on March 17 and 18 against Purdue before the Redbirds make the return trip to West Lafayette for games on March 19 and 20.
Illinois State's first Missouri Valley Conference series starts on April 1 at Indiana State before the 'Birds travel to Kansas for their final non-conference series.
The Redbirds host defending MVC champion Dallas Baptist from April 29-May 1 and conclude the regular season with a home series against Southern Illinois from May 19-21.
Illinois State has numerous midweek matchups sprinkled in along the way, hosting the Big Ten's Iowa on March 29, Illinois on April 5, Indiana on April 27, among others.
The MVC has yet to release a site for the 2022 conference tournament.
Illinois State finished 23-34 with a 12-15 MVC record in 2021.
INSIDE THE SCHEDULE
- The Redbirds return to Fayetteville to open the 2022 season after knocking off the 13th-ranked Razorbacks in 2020.
- Illinois State is scheduled for 16 games against Power Five opponents (10 Big Ten, three SEC, three Big 12), which would be a program record. The previous record was 14 in 1991.
- March 17's home opener against Purdue will be the program's first home opener against a Power Five school since 1991 (3/25/1991 vs Wisconsin). The trip back to West LaFayette will serve as a bit of a homecoming for fourth-year head coach Steve Holm and fourth-year assistant head coach Wally Crancer after both served as assistants at Purdue prior to coming to Illinois State.
- The program is set to play Western Carolina, Kansas, and St. Thomas for the first time ever.
- The 2022 opponents finished 2021 with a combined 631-566 (.527) record.
QUOTE FROM FOURTH-YEAR HEAD COACH STEVE HOLM
"This year, our club will be tested right off the bat. We get a chance to play one of the top five teams in the country when we travel to Arkansas to open the season. We feel this schedule is balanced out nicely with some RPI-type weekends and some quality regional opponents. It will certainly be nice to have a more of a traditional routine with the mid-weeks back on the docket, which will allow us to see our friends in the Big Ten again, who we face off against 10 different times."
*All opponents, dates, times, and locations are subject to change
For the latest updates on Illinois State Baseball, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com, follow the Redbirds on Twitter (@RedbirdBaseball) and Instagram (isuredbirdbaseball), and like the team on Facebook (Illinois State Baseball).
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
