MACOMB, Ill. - The 2010 baseball season saw both highs and lows for Western Illinois. The Fighting Leathernecks not only experienced a coaching change after the offseason death of former coach Stan Hyman, but would face more tragedy late in the season when junior pitcher Devin VanBrooker died in a motorcycle accident in May at the age of 21.

Despite the off-field distractions, the Leathernecks showed improvement in multiple areas under first-year head coach Mike Villano. The team began the season with a three game series at Furman in late February, taking two-of-three from the Paladins.

Western dropped the first game of the series by a 6-3 score before picking up consecutive wins to close out the three-game tilt. A 19-9 victory sealed the deal in game three as John Koszulinski hit his first career home run, a grand slam, and drove in six runs to earn Western Illinois Scholar Athlete of the Week honors.

Western Illinois pounded out 21 hits, including two homers, four doubles and one triple and drew 11 walks in the series finale.

The Leathernecks would pick up their third straight win over Saint Louis on March 3 to improve to 3-1 before taking a road trip to Norman, Okla. to participate on the Sooner Classic. Western dropped its first game in Norman to then No. 17 Oklahoma by a 12-1 score before splitting a doubleheader with Stephen F. Austin on day two.

The Leathernecks dropped their final game of the Sooner Classic to South Florida by a 16-2 score to move to 4-4 through their first eight games.

The loss to South Florida would begin an eight-game skid to drop the team to 4-11 before Western picked up a 14-6 win over UALR on March 23, drawing a season-high 14 walks while picking up 16 hits.

Western would fall to UALR on March 24 before dropping two-straight walk off decisions at Iowa March 26-27 as the Hawkeyes swept a three-game series.

The Leathernecks bounced back from their four-game slide with an emphatic 18-3 win over Coe College in the team's home opener on March 31.

After splitting the next two games with Culver Stockton to move to 7-16 through their first 23 games, the Leathernecks began Summit League play at home, playing host to North Dakota State in a four-game series.

Western would drop its Summit League opener to the Bison before rebounding with a 6-3 win in game two of the series. Devin VanBrooker pitched his best outing of the season, allowing just three runs on right hits in 7.2 innings. He walked just one and struck out a career-high seven batters in the performance.

A loss to North Dakota State in game three of the series began a five game skid which dropped the Leathernecks to 8-22 overall and 1-3 in league play before a 3-2 win over IPFW in game two of a doubleheader on April 17.

The Leathernecks dropped another nail biter at Iowa on April 20 before hitting the road for the first time in league play. Western Illinois had defending league champion Oral Roberts on the ropes in game one, but the Golden Eagles mounted a comeback and swept Western in a four-game series.

Western Illinois returned home for a four-game series against Oakland from April 20-May 2 in hopes of rebounding, but the Golden Grizzlies swept the series to drop the Leathernecks to 9-32 overall and 2-14 in league play.

Western rebounded with a 22-3 thumping of Illinois College on May 4, pounding out season-high 22 hits against the Blueboys while drawing 11 walks.

The team would experience its second tragedy in seven months when VanBrooker was killed in a motorcycle accident in the late-evening hours following the Illinois College game.

Western's weekend trip to Centenary was postponed to allow the team to attend funeral services and would not return to action until Southern Utah came calling on May 14.

The Leathernecks dropped game one against the Thunderbirds before picking up a 12-11 win in 10 innings in game two. The teams would split the final two games of the series as Western entered the final week of the season at 12-34 overall and 4-16 in The Summit League.

Western concluded its final week of play with seven games over the course of six days beginning with a three-game set at then league-leading Centenary.

The Leathernecks stormed by the Gents in game, 18-7, on the strength of Jason Summers six RBI performance. Summers was 3-for-4 with a grand slam, the first of his career, while scoring three times.

Centenary picked up wins n the final two games of the series and Western fell to 13-36 overall and 5-18 in league play before traveling to South Dakota State for a four-game series to end the season.

After dropping the first three games of the series, the Leathernecks fought back to take the season finale by a 15-14 score in extra innings to finish the season at 14-39 overall and 6-21 in league play.

Despite their record, the Leathernecks saw marked improvement in a number of statistical categories. As a team, Western Illinois batted .312, finishing the season ranked third in The Summit League in team batting average.

The team also saw its earned run average cut by over two full runs per game and Western Illinois pitchers issued 213 walks in 431.2 innings, down from 218 walks in just 380.1 innings in 2009.

As a team, the Leathernecks saw six players end the season with a batting average of .300 or higher and each one of the regular starters posted a batting average better than .281. Four players recorded 60 or more hits while also driving in 30 or more runs.

Western Illinois had six players record hitting streaks of at least 10 games and another eight players finished the year with 10 or more multiple hit games

In the classroom, the Leathernecks recorded a team GPA of 2.96, the fifth highest among male sports teams at Western Illinois during the spring semester.

In addition to the team's accomplishments, several individual players excelled both on and off the field. Summers led the team and The Summit League with a .423 batting average. He ended the 2010 season on the school's single-season top 10 list in batting average, hits (77) and doubles (15) while earning second team all-league honors.

He was also named as The Summit League Player of the Week after batting .667 (10-for-15) with two doubles, seven RBI and four runs scored in four games against Southern Utah.

Tom Lilja was named as the leagues Co-Player of the week after batting .545 (12-for-22) with two doubles, nine RBI and five runs scored over a five game stretch in late March.

In addition to the honors for Summers and Lilja, senior infielder Cole Waddell was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in May. Waddell batted .312 (62-for-199) with 19 doubles, one triple, four homers and 41 RBI on the season while graduating Suma Cum Laude with a 3.96 GPA.

The Derby, Kan. native also ended his career ranked third in school history in doubles in a single season (19) and ranked ninth for career doubles (33).

Bryan Jordan also etched his name into the Western Illinois record books. Jordan ended the season in the top 10 in three single-season categories. The Cincinnati native ranks fourth in runs (51), fifth in doubles (18) and fifth in total bases (110) and ended the season ranked ninth in the league in home runs (9).

Joining Koszulinski as a Western Illinois Scholar Athlete of the Week was Beau Below. The junior right-hander earned the honors after tossing his first career complete-game against Southern Utah on May 16 (CG, 7.0 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO) while earning a 3.45 GPA in the classroom.