SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: Samford enters the 2011 season after a fifth place finish in the SoCon... the Bulldogs finished 31-25 overall last season and 17-12 in the SoCon... the Bulldogs were strong at home as they collected an 18-12 mark... Samford returns 23 letterwinners from last season... Lex Rutledge returns as a sophomore and has been named preseason second-team All-American by College Baseball Lineup... Rutledge has also been recognized as an All-American by Louisville Slugger and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association... the Bulldog closer collected 11 saves and a 5-1 record while striking out 65 batters in 47.1 innings... Rutledge was also an all-conference selection last season and a preseason all-conference selection for the 2011 campaign... the Bulldogs also return senior infielder Michael Johnson... Johnson hit .330 and drove in 45 runs a season ago... catcher Gary Cramer returns behind the plate for Samford after a season where he hit .330... Samford loses outfielder David Schulz who hit .377 with 12 HR and 56 RBI while slugging .634... Schulz was an all-conference selection a season ago.

REPLACING SUMMERS & WADDELL: Western Illinois will need to fill the holes in the lineup left by first baseman Jason Summers and second baseman  Cole Waddell. Summers was an second-team all-league selection last season. Summers hit .423 and drove in 46 runs while collecting 110 total bases. Waddell was a sure-handed infielder and hit .312 and collected 41 RBI.

OTHER STARTER NOTES: Bryan Jordan started all 53 games last season for Western... Tom Lilja was in the lineup 51 times and John Koszulinksi started 43 times for the Leathernecks. Dan Dispensa was starting every game before missing the end of the season due to injury but was able to collect 41 starts. Chris Giglio was a a steady option on the infield and started 49 games. Speedster Anthony Kaskadden started 45 games for the Purple & Gold.

FAMILIAR FACES: Several players knew each other prior to arriving on campus... Coming from the College of Lake County are: Anthony Kaskadden, Travis Pedersen and Rich Mascheri... Bryan Jordan and Beau Below were teammates at Black Hawk College...Matt Igara, Steve Kedroski, Ryan Wachholder and Alexander Zarate all joined the Leathernecks this season after spending time at Heartland C.C... John Koszulinski, Chris Giglio, Chris Macek and Tom Lilja were high school teammates at Lincoln-Way East.

STREAKING LEATHERNECKS: Six Leathernecks enter the 2011 season with active hitting streaks... Tom Lilja (6)... Chris Giglio (4)... Bryan Jordan, John Koszulinksi and Anthony Kaskadden (3)... Dan Dispensa (1).

DISPENSA HEALTHY: The Leathernecks' outfield will receive a boost as CF Dan Dispensa returns after missing the last 12 games of 2010 with an injury to his wrist. He has also turned all of his attention to baseball after participating in football and baseball at Western in 2009-10.

WOLVERINE STATE: Six new Leathernecks this season hail from Michigan. Tyler Baratono (Allen Park), Garrett Bolt (Wheeler), Jake Moore (Romeo), Dan Owenby (Rochester Hills), Tyler Owings (Saline) and Philip Tolman (Allendale).

OPENING SERIES SUCCESS: Last season, Western opened at Furman and Anthony Kaskadden went 2-4 with two RBI in the opening game. John Koszulinksi and Dan Dispensa each collected two hits while Tom Lilja drove in two runs in the middle game. Western dropped game one 6-3 but was able to take game two 7-2. In game three Koszulinski drove in six runs with three hits. The Leathernecks won the series including a 19-9 decision in the finale.

STARTING EARLY IN ALABAMA: The Feb. 18 opener is the earliest that Western Illinois has started since 2007 when they opened in Montgomery, Ala. with a sweep of Alabama State.

MOMENTUM: The Leathernecks will try and capture the momentum gained from an emotional victory in the final game of 2010. Western knocked off the regular season champions South Dakota State, 15-14. That win capped of a nine-day stretch which saw Western play its best baseball of the season

LEATHERNECKS PICKED FIFTH IN PRESEASON POLL: Western Illinois was picked fifth by the Summit League coaches in the preseason poll. Oral Roberts was picked as the favorite to take home the league title with 49 overall points and seven first-place votes. SDSU received 43 points and a single first-place vote. finishing just three points ahead of the Leathernecks were Oakland and Southern Utah in a tie for third with 27 points. NDSU finished right behind Western in 6th and 23 points. Centenary and IPFW round out the eight-team poll with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

EXTRA BASES: Western Illinois hitters combined for 152 multiple-hit games last season... Jason Summers recorded 23 games with two or more hits while Cole Waddell (19), Bryan Jordan (19), John Koszulinksi (18), Anthony Kaskadden (16), Tom Lilja (15), Dan Dispensa (11) and Chris Giglio (11) each had 10 or more multi-hit games... Summers recorded a team-leading 14 games with three or more hits while Waddell and Giglio each had a season-best five hit games... the team also combined for 77 multi-RBI games from individual players...Cole Waddell led the team with 13 games with two or more RBI... John Koszulinski matched that with 13 games with two or more RBI including two games where he knocked in five runs... Jason Summers recorded 10 games with multiple RBI... Bryan Jordan tallied nine games of multiple RBI... six players had hitting streaks of 10 or more games last season... Dan Dispensa carries an active one-game hitting streak into this season but held the team-high 16-game hitting streak prior in the season... Jason Summers had a 14-game streak... Tom Lilja and John Koszulinski each had 11-game streaks to their names.... Cole Waddell also had a 10-game streak during 2010... Western returns three players who have career-batting averages of .300 or better... those players are John Koszulinski (.336), Tom Lilja (.319) and Bryan Jordan (.308)... the Leathernecks' longest winning-streak in 2010 was three games... the team's longest losing-streak was 10 games from April 18-May 2.