The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team will try and build off of their success from last weekend as they look ahead to Indianapolis. The Prairie Stars and Greyhounds are set to play a four-game series. The series starts on Friday at 12:00 p.m. with a doubleheader, followed by a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12:00 p.m once again. Head coach Trevor Forde will face off against his alma mater for the first time as the head coach of the Prairie Stars.
UIS (18-11, 9-7)
The Prairie Stars are coming off a thrilling weekend where they earned a sweep against Missouri S&T. The Stars scored 68 runs and hit 15 home runs in the four game series. UIS won Game One, 25-24, and Game Three, 19-16, in walk off fashion. Game Two was another wild game where UIS won 10-9, but not before S&T almost pulled off a miraculous comeback in the last inning. Game Four was the only one of the four in which UIS was able to win handily. Eight runs in the fourth inning led the Stars to a 14-4 win in seven innings. For his performance throughout the series, sophomore Ivan Dahlberg was named GLVC Player of the Week. Dahlberg drove in 10 runs and scored 11 of his own.
The Prairie Stars are 11-4 this season at the UIS Baseball Field. As a team, the Prairie Stars have a GLVC-leading batting average (.340) and runs scored (269). Seven different Stars have an average of .300 or above. Mark Kattula (.445) and Brant Vanaman (.414) are both in the top-five in the GLVC for batting average. UIS's pitching staff currently holds a 8.09 ERA while allowing 201 earned runs. Opponents have a .314 batting average against the UIS pitchers. The Prairie Star defense has a .976 fielding percentage with 23 errors.
Indianapolis (17-10, 13-3)
The Greyhounds are coming off a 1-3 weekend against Rockhurst, breaking their fifteen-game win streak and perfect start to the conference season. In Game One of the series, UIndy's offense exploded to score 21 runs, including an eleven run fifth inning, on the way to a 21-4 win. In Game Two, Rockhurst took advantage of Indianapolis errors on their way to a commanding 12-4 win to break the Greyhounds' perfect start to the GLVC. Game Three between the two was a close game throughout, but RU was able to squeak out a 5-4 win. In the series finale, both teams were able to find their offense again as the Greyhounds and Hawks combined for 27 runs and 28 hits. Rockhurst took Game Four 17-10 as they scored at least one run in every inning except the first and ninth. Last weekend was the first time that Indianapolis has lost a game since March 6.
The Greyhounds are 9-3 away from home this season. As a team, Indianapolis is batting .306 while having scored 253 runs. Six Hounds currently have a batting average of .300 or better, and are led by Easton Good at .406. UIndy's pitching staff currently holds a 5.77 ERA while allowing 141 earned runs. Opponents have a .260 batting average against the UIndy pitchers. The Indianapolis defense has a .944 fielding percentage with 52 errors.
How to Follow
Every conference game of the 2024 season will be streamed on GLVCSN and will have live stats that you can follow. Both the stream and live stat link can be found in the Baseball section on the UIS Athletics website.