MACOMB, Ill. – The Western Illinois baseball team will travel to Peoria, Ill. to face the Bradley Braves for three games this weekend at O'Brien Field, which is the home of the Single-A Peoria Chiefs.
The Braves will come into the weekend with a 15-7 record and will face the Leathernecks before hosting Illinois for one game and Northern Illinois for a single game as well.
The Match up
Who: Â Western Illinois at Bradley
When:  Friday, April 1 (6 p.m.) • Saturday, April 2 (2 p.m.) • Sunday, April 3 (1 p.m.)
Location: Peoria, Ill.
 Coverage
Radio  • Rocky Vision  (free) Flagship Station
 Play-by-Play: Cameron Weidenthaler and Michael Broskowski
Live Stats • BradleyBraves.com (free)
SCOUTING THE BRAVES: Missouri Valley Conference member Bradley will come into the weekend series with the Leathernecks with a 15-7 record... head coach Elvis Dominguez is in his third year as the Braves' skipper and has a 229-268-2 in nine years as a college head coach... Jason Leblebijian is hitting .383 with nine RBI... Mike Tauchman has driven in 15 RBI with an .380 average and has stolen 11 bases... Bob Schuch has a .321 average in his 17 starts... as a team the Braves are hitting .293... Jacob Booden is 3-0 with a 2.83 ERA and 24 K's... Joe Bircher is 3-2 with a 3.40 ERA and john Nasshan is 2-2 and holds a 4.46 ERA... Justin Ziegler has collected six saves on the season and a 2.61 ERA... the team has a 3.44 ERA and opponents are hitting .251 against Bradley pitchers this season... the longest winning streak this season for the Braves is five games, which they have done twice.
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 38... Next best is Southern Utah with 26... Danny Marcuzzo has been hit seven times while John Koszulinski and Matt Igara have been hit on six 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 17... the sophomore is hitting .333 and had a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season.
STARTER NOTES: Matt Igara has started all 22 games so far for the Leathernecks... Austin Cowen also has started every game this season... John Koszulinski and Tom Lilja have appeared in every game.
MONEYBALL: Matt Igara is at .961 in OPS (On-Base + Slugging)... Igara also has a 21.49 in the runs created category... Tom Lilja currently has a .886 OPS and Dan Dispensa is at .834.
TOTAL BASES WATCH: Matt Igara leads the team and Summit League in total bases with 48... Tom Lilja has 44 total bases while Austin Cowen and Ryan Cowhey have 29.
SOS: The Leathernecks strength of schedule is currently at 30 according to Boyd's World... The team's best win of the season came over Georgia State... the Panthers had an RPI of 99 and are currently 21-6.
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.
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 33 hits on the season and a .359 average... has hit safely in 17 of the first 22 games this season and had an 11-game hitting streak... has collected 13 multi-hit games.
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 19 runs in the ninth inning this season, the most of any inning this season... Western Illinois scored five runs in the ninth against Georgia State to extend the game into extra innings... opponents have scored 23 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... Russell put together the best start of the season so far at Iowa as he picked up the victory with 8.1 innings where he did not allow a walk and struck out six opponents.
BY THE NUMBERS: The Leathernecks are currently ranked fpurth in The Summit League in team batting average (.266) and fourth in ERA (6.16)... Western Illinois is first in runs scored (108), second in hits (201), second in RBI (92), first in doubles (42), tied for the lead in home runs (11), second in total bases (280), first in walks (88), tied for first in sacrifice bunts (19) and third in stolen bases (30)... Matt Igara is second in the league in hits (33) while ranking seventh in on base percentage (.4)... Dan Dispensa is fourth in on base percentage with an .473 OBP and also leads the Summit League with 17 walks... Western Illinois has four players with a batting average of .300 or better while four players have posted 10 or more RBI... as a team the Leathernecks have a .368 on base percentage.
EXTRA BASES: Western Illinois hitters have combined for 54 multiple-hit games this season... Matt Igara has 13 games with two or more hits while Austin Cowen (5), Dan Dispensa (6), Tom Lilja (6), Bryan Jordan (7), Ryan Cowhey (4), Danny Marcuzzo (3), John Koszulinski (4) 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 three three hit games on the season while Lilja (2), Cowen (1), Dispensa (1), Cowhey (1) and Giglio (2) have all recorded three hit games... the team has also combined for 19 multi-RBI games from individual players... Tom Lilja has recored four multi-RBI games including one four-RBI performance... Austin Cowen and Matt Igara both have three multi-RBI games... John Koszulinski has a five-RBI game as well... four players have had hitting streaks of 10 or more games this season... Lilja had a 13-game hitting streak... Igara had an 11-game streak... Dispensa and Cowen both had 10-game streaks previously this season.
