I had my doubts about any Tuesday night game happening but it looks like this front just might move on through and while it won’t be sunny, it’s looking like the precipitation will be past us.
If so, Eastern Illinois is coming to town and while most don’t think of them as a big sports school, give them credit for developing a formidable baseball program. Right now they are 24-6 and 9-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
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Game #30 |
Record: 21-8 (6-3 Big Ten) |
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vs Eastern Illinois University Panthers | at Illinois Field, Champaign, Il |
| April 14 | 6:00pm CT |
More importantly perhaps, they are ranked 29th by the Collegiate Baseball Poll giving them some national attention. They seem to dominate the OVC. They rank first in hitting, pitching and fielding. The top two hitters in the OVC are Panthers (Brett Nommensen and Richie Derbak). EIU also has the top pitcher in ERA… Mike Recchia with a 1.16 ERA.
Nommensen also leads the OVC in homers with 11.
So we’ll see how this dynamic plays out as EIU comes to Illinois Field to play us. It didn’t work out so well last year when we visited them. They pummeled us 13-3.
With two comeback wins against Michigan, we have some momentum. While we really should be setting our sights on this weekend’s series with Minnesota, it would be nice to get some revenge against EIU.
Opponent:
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Eastern Illinois University Panthers |
| Conference: | Ohio Valley Conference |
| Head Coach: | Jim Schmitz (15th year) |
| Current Record: | 24-6 (9-1 OVC) |
| Baseball Program website | Team Media Guide |
| EIU Team Facts: | EIU leads the OVC in hitting (.380), pitching (4.56) and fielding. |
| EIU Players to Watch: | Brett Nommensen has some pretty incredible stats. In 28 starts, he leads the OVC in homers with 11. He also sports a .521 batting average (also tops in the OVC) with 39 runs scored and 26 rbis. Not surprisingly, he gets pitched around a lot (22 walks). |