SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: Kansas State will come into the four-game series with Western Illinois with a 5-2 record, they began the season with a sweep of Pacific and took two of four in the Caravelle Resort's Baseball at the Beach in South Carolina... Kansas State enters the 2011 season after a third place place finish in the Big XII... the Wildcats finished 37-22 overall last season and 14-12 in the Big XII... the Wildcats advanced to postseason play but went 1-2 in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional (Lost two to Washington State and beat Grambling State)... KSU returns 18 letterwinners from last season and will look to replace nine letterwinners... head coach Brad Hill (seventh season) will look to 2010 Big XII Co-Player of the Year and 2010 Second Team All-American outfielder Nick Martini... Martini hit .416 with 59 RBI and 19 stolen bases... The junior is also on the Preseason Golden Spikes Award Watch List... KSU also will return DH Chase Graskewicz who started the final 10 games for the Wildcats and hit .359... The Wildcats will also get back the services of infielder Jason King who missed 2010 due to injury and hit .316 with seven homers, 61 RBI and 14 stolen bases in 2009... the rotation will be led by LHP Kyle Hunter (9-2 and 4.59 ERA in 2010) and James Allen (5-1 with nine saves in 2010)... Evan Marshall (5-5, 3.90 ERA) and Thomas Rooke (4-1, 4.18 ERA) will also look to contribute in 2011.

LAST TIME: This is the 12th meeting ever between Western Illinois and Kansas State. The Wildcats lead the series 9-2 but the Leathernecks won the most recent installment, 12-11 in 2004 in Manhattan.

OTHER STARTER NOTES: Bryan Jordan started all 53 games last season for Western... Tom Lilja was in the lineup 51 times and John Koszulinski started 43 times for the Leathernecks... Dan Dispensa had started every game before missing the end of the season due to injury but was able to collect 41 starts... Chris Giglio was 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 and Travis Pedersen... 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.

OUCH: Western Illinois leads The Summit League in hit by pitches with 18... Next best is Southern Utah with seven... John Koszulinski, Anthony Kaskadden and Danny Marcuzzo all have been hit four times to tie for the League lead.

DISPENSA HEALTHY: The Leathernecks' outfield will receive a boost as OF 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 hail from Michigan... Tyler Baratono (Allen Park), Garrett Bolt (Wheeler), Jake Moore (Romeo), Dan Owenby (Rochester Hills), Tyler Owings (Saline) and Philip Tolman (Allendale).

GRAND THEFT: Anthony Kaskadden is perfect in stolen base attempts this season... The senior from Lakemoor, Ill. is 7-7 on the season including four in game one against Samford... Kaskadden is the first to swipe four bags since Steve Knapp did it against Oakland on April 16, 2006... A.K. stole third twice against Samford... Ryan Cowhey stole three bags in the win over Georgia State... The Leathernecks lead the league in stolen base attempts.

ALWAYS A LEATHERNECK: Western Illinois roster looks very different than it did a season ago and 15 of those members made their Leatherneck debut against Samford... Western has 22 newcomers, 17 from the JC ranks and five from high school.

DOUBLE THE FUN: The Leathernecks have tallied 14 doubles this season, which is second behind Oral Roberts (16)... Ryan Cowhey and Austin Cowen are tied for the League lead with three.

MONEYBALL: Tom Lilja currently has a .908 OPS (On-Base Percentage + Slugging)... Dan Dispensa is at .881... Lilja is also first in runs created with 4.62... Anthony Kaskadden is at a 3.86 in the runs created category... Dispensa is also leading the team with a .524 on-base percentage.

DOUBLE PLAY COMBO: In the third inning of Sunday's game with Samford, the Leathernecks turned their first double play of the season... It was of the 4-6-3 variety as Tyler Baratono fed Austin Cowen to help starter Alexander Zarate clear the bases.

TAKE A SEAT: Western Illinois pitchers have struck out 52 batters this season, which is the most in The Summit League... Dan Russell leads the way with 13 in his 12 innings of work in 2011.

TOTAL BASES WATCH: Matt Igara leads in total bases (10) after a strong weekend... Ryan Cowhey, Austin Cowen and Tom Lilja all have nine total bases.

FIGHTING LEATHERNECKS ON THE AIR: Western Illinois baseball games can be heard live on the Internet (www.GoLeathernecks.com) via the Leatherneck Sports Network by clicking on the link for each game on the baseball schedule/results page... radio broadcasts for the games at Southern Utah will not take place due to no phone lines at those facilities. If any other games are not going to be broadcast, GoLeathernecks.com will have that information.

ESTABLISHING ROLES: The Leatherneck bullpen had flashes of excellence over the weekend... Dan Russell was the first to make an appearance and went 1.2 innings and struck out three Georgia State Panthers... Saturday had a couple strong outings... Zach Sterling kept the game close and allowed the Leathernecks to stage a seven-run comeback in game one of the double header as he went two innings of no-hit baseball...Chris Fuchs went 3.1 innings and did not allow an earned run...Gabe Long went one inning while not allowing a run and set-up Zach Sterling for a two-inning save.

LAST CHANCE: The Leathernecks strung four consecutive hits together in the top of the ninth inning on Saturday against Georgia State... Western had five hits in the inning including four doubles... the Purple Army were down seven runs heading in the final two innings and five runs in the ninth... Western Illinois scored five to extend the game into extra innings.

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 Koszulinski (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.