The Illinois Springfield baseball team begins Great Lakes Valley Conference action this weekend, hosting Lewis for a four-game series at the UIS Baseball Field. The series opens at 1:00 p.m. on Friday with a nine-inning game, followed by a Saturday doubleheader featuring two seven-inning games at noon. The final game, a nine-inning matchup, is set for Sunday at noon.

Illinois Springfield (5-5)
UIS (5-5) is coming off a successful road trip to Thomas More, where the Prairie Stars secured a pair of wins on Friday. They took the first game 7-4 in seven innings before closing the series with a 7-3 victory in nine innings.

UIS recorded six extra-base hits in game one, including five doubles—two from Noah Caceres—as five Prairie Stars notched two hits each. Esteban Hernandez earned his first win of the season, allowing two earned runs over 5.1 innings while striking out four. Seth Masters recorded the save with a two-strikeout inning. 

In game two, Ben Benoit delivered a dominant performance on the mound, throwing five scoreless innings with four strikeouts to earn the win. Caceres powered the offense with a two-run homer as part of a multi-hit game, while Luke Erickson added a home run and a sacrifice fly, driving in three runs.

Ty Hollandsworth leads the Prairie Stars at the plate, hitting .417 with an .833 slugging percentage through 10 starts (36 at-bats). Dillon Smail (.571) and Chris Suchoski (.538) have also been productive in limited plate appearances.

On the mound, Benoit leads UIS in strikeouts with 11 over 12.2 innings while posting a 3.55 ERA. Hernandez holds the best ERA among pitchers with at least four innings pitched (5.54) and leads the staff with 13.0 innings of work.

Lewis (5-3)
The Flyers enter the series on a four-game winning streak after sweeping Upper Iowa in non-conference play over the weekend.

Lewis overcame an early 3-0 deficit in the opener, rallying for nine runs in the fifth inning to take a 10-8 win. Kaleb Schulist earned the victory, while Jackson Bruno picked up the save. Despite the high-scoring affair, no player had more than two hits, with Cain Headrick leading the way offensively.

In game two, the Flyers completed another comeback win, capped by George Bilecki's walk-off home run to enforce the mercy rule in an 8-inning, doubleheader sweep.

Sunday's opener was a tighter contest, with Lewis edging UIU 3-2 after Bilecki's go-ahead hit. The Flyers closed out the series with a 7-3 victory behind Mikey Kocen's three RBIs, which included a triple and a sacrifice fly.

Dylan Wolff is 2-2 in two starts, 11 innings pitching and 11 strikeouts with a 1.82 ERA. Brendon Lawry has seen 10 innings, is 1-0 in two appearances, and has struck out 13. On offense, Mikey Kocen is batting .440 , 11 hits in 25 at bats, followed by Cole Newlson at .320. 

Follow Along
The series will be streamed live on the GLVC Sports Network, and live statistics will be available at uisprairiestars.com.