SCOUTING THE HAWKEYES: Iowa will come into the weekend series with a 7-10 record and taking two of four in the Notre Dame Tournament in San Antonio, Texas... the Hawkeyes beat Notre Dame twice and fell to Gonzaga in the final two games of the event...head coach Jack Dahm is in his seventh season (453-492-2) as the Hawkeye's skipper... Trevor Willis leads the offense with a .343 average and a .478 slugging percentage... Andrew Ewing is hitting .318 with eight RBI... Mike McQuillan has seven RBI while hitting .308... as a team Iowa is hitting .250... the Hawkeyes have committed 19 errors on the season... Kevin Lee leads a solid group of pitchers with his 2-0 record and a 3.12 ERA... Patrick Lala has made seven appearances and holds 0.87 ERA... Nick Brown is 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA... the staff's ERA is at 4.80 and opponents are hitting .292 against the Hawkeyes... Iowa and Western Illinois have two common opponents this season... the Hawkeyes beat Southern Utah 8-3 and split with Georgia State earlier this season... Iowa will also square off with SDSU after the weekend series with the Leathernecks.

CDB/WIU: College Baseball Daily has teamed up with the Western Illinois baseball team and will feature a weekly journal with an entry from a Leathernecks player or coach. The site is a great source for college baseball news around the nation and will spotlight the upcoming season for Western with various viewpoints from the players and staff.

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 31... Next best is Southern Utah with 25... Danny Marcuzzo has been hit seven times while John Koszulinski has been hit on five occasions.

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... Dispensa leads the team and Summit League in walks with 13... the sophomore is hitting .322 and had a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season.

STARTER NOTES: Matt Igara has started all 18 games so far for the Leathernecks... Austin Cowen also has started every game this season... Ryan Cowhey , John Koszulinski , Danny Marcuzzo and Tom Lilja have appeared in every game.

MONEYBALL: Matt Igara is at .958 in OPS (On-Base + Slugging)... Igara also has a 16.51 in the runs created category... Tom Lilja currently has a .827 OPS and Dan Dispensa is at .815.

TOTAL BASES WATCH: Matt Igara leads the team and Summit League in total bases with 41... Tom Lilja has 33 total bases while Austin Cowen has 25.

SOS: The Leathernecks strength schedule is currently at 58 and an RPI of 212… The team's best win of the season came over Georgia State... the Panthers had an RPI of 89 and are currently 11-4.

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.

MARKED IMPROVEMENTS: In the first 18 games last season, Western Illinois allowed 10 runs or more nine times... during this season it has only occurred five times... in the last five games the Leathernecks are hitting .302 with a .407 on base percentage.

ANOTHER NEWCOMER: Center fielder Matt Igara joined the Leathernecks after a very successful stint at Heartland C.C... Igara has not missed a beat since joining the Division I ranks... he has 28 hits on the season and a .364 average... has hit safely in 15 of the first 18 games this season and is on a 11-game hitting streak... during the last five games Igara is hitting .550 with one home run, three doubles, three RBI and has scored six runs.

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.

LAST CHANCE: The Leathernecks have scored 18 runs in the ninth inning this season... Western Illinois scored five runs in the ninth against Georgia State to extend the game into extra innings... opponents have scored 20 runs in the first inning this season.

EXTRA! EXTRA!: Western Illinois has played two extra-inning games so far this season... that already matches or better the previous three seasons... in 2008 Western played one into extras and that was in the Summit League Tournament... 2009 offered two extra-inning affairs and 2010 also delivered two games with free baseball.

QUALITY STARTS: Dan Russell has delivered three quality starts with 6.0 innings and one earned run in the victory over Georgia State... Russell also tossed 7.0 strong innings against Kansas State but allowed four earned runs… Russell's third quality start came at Indiana State where he went 7.0 innings and only allowed one run in victory... Russell was on his way to another strong start at Missouri State before it was suspended due to rain...he had struck out seven hitters in five innings... Ryan Wachholder also tossed a quality start with over the weekend against the Wildcats as he went 6.0 innings and allowed just two earned runs... Zach Sterling collected his first quality start at Missouri State with 6.0 IP and three earned runs in the win.

BY THE NUMBERS: The Leathernecks are currently ranked fifth in The Summit League in team batting average (.252) and fourth in ERA (6.56)... Western Illinois is third in runs scored (82), second in hits (157), third in RBI (70), first in doubles (32), second in home runs (10), second in total bases (219), first in walks (31), second in sacrifice bunts (14) and third in stolen bases (20)... Matt Igara is sixth in the league in batting average (.364) while leading in hits (28) while ranking seventh in on base percentage (.425)... Dan Dispensa is fourth in on base percentage with a .459 and also leads the Summit League with 13 walks... Western Illinois has three players finish with a batting average of .300 or better while three players have posted 10 or more RBI... as a team the Leathernecks have a .325 on base percentage

EXTRA BASES: Western Illinois hitters have combined for 40 multiple-hit games this season... Matt Igara has 11 games with two or more hits while Austin Cowen (4), Dan Dispensa (4), Tom Lilja (4), Bryan Jordan (4), Ryan Cowhey (3), Danny Marcuzzo (3), John Koszulinski (3) and Chris Giglio (2) each have recorded one or more multi-hit games... Dispensa is the only Leatherneck to have recorded four hits this season... Igara has collected two three hit games on the season while Cowen (1), Dispensa (1), Cowhey (1) and Giglio (2) have all recorded three hit games... the team has also combined for 16 multi-RBI games from individual players... Lilja, Cowen and Igara all have recorded three games with two or more RBI... Dispensa has two multi-RBI games this season... John Koszulinski has collected a five RBI game on the season as well... four players have had hitting streaks of 10 or more games this season... Lilja is currently on an 11-game hitting streak... Igara has an active 10-game streak... Dispensa and Cowen both had 10-game streaks previously this season.