The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team will return to the Kansas City area for a four-game weekend series against the William Jewell Cardinals. The Cardinals were the No. 7 pick in the league's preseason poll, two places behind the No. 5 Prairie Stars.
The series begins on Friday at 3:00 p.m. before a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m., and finishes with a lone 1:00 p.m. game on Sunday.
UIS (11-6, 2-2)
UIS started conference play by splitting a series with the Rockhurst Hawks last weekend. The Prairie Stars went up early in the series opener, but Rockhurst battled back slowly to eventually lead by one run in the sixth inning. UIS put up two runs in the eighth to secure the win. The teams split a doubleheader on Sunday, with the Prairie Stars losing 10-4 then winning 16-2. The fourth game of the series was tied 5-5 in the fourth but would end 16-6 in Rockhurst's favor on an eight-run seventh inning.
Mark Kattula, Jackson Blemler, and Brant Vanaman lead the offense with batting averages of .400 or higher. UIS currently averages just over 30 runs a weekend, 8.5 per game.
Right-handed pitcher Gavin Wahlbrink is 3-0 on five starts this season. He has held opponents to a .295 batting average in 26.2 IP.
The Prairie Stars appeared at No. 24 in the NCBWA Top 25 this week.
William Jewell (7-6, 1-3)
WJC met the reigning GLVC Champion Quincy Hawks in their start to conference play last weekend, taking the third game of the series 11-7. The Cardinals have also been involved in plenty of high-scoring baseball early this season, scoring 9.46 runs per game and allowing an average of 8.15 runs by their opponents.
William Jewell met conference newcomer Upper Iowa in a midweek contest. The game went to extra innings before WJC won 10-9.
The Cardinals won 13-3 when they met UIS in the GLVC tournament last spring, however the last regular season series between the teams was swept by the Prairie Stars.
How to Follow
Live statistics and a video stream will be available for conference games. Statistics can be found on the UIS baseball schedule or on Twitter the day of the game. All games are streamed on the GLVC Sports Network.