MACOMB, Ill. – Western Illinois and Bradley will square off on Wednesday for the final time this season. The two teams met earlier this season for three games in Peoria, Ill. Zach Sterling led the Purple & Gold to the only victory in those three games with 6.0 innings and eight strikeouts.
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Bradley leads the all-time series 57-40 after winning the weekend series earlier in the year.
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The Match Up
Who: Â Western Illinois vs. Bradley
When:Â Wednesday, April 13 (3:30 p.m.)
Location: Macomb, Ill.
 Coverage
Radio  • Rocky Vision  (free) Flagship Station
 Play-by-Play: Michael Broskowski
Live Stats • GoLeathernecks.com (free)
SCOUTING THE BRAVES: Missouri Valley Conference member, Bradley, will travel to Alfred. D. Boyer Stadium for the fourth meeting between the two teams this season... as a team the Braves are hitting .287... Mike Tauchman leads the way with a .387 average and 21 RBI... Jason Leblebijian has a .333 average and nine doubles... Derek Sprout is hitting .303 with 17 RBI... Brad Kimball has three long balls on the season and 19 RBI... the Braves' pitchers have a 4.18 ERA... Joe Bircher is 4-2 with a 2.94 ERA with a team high 29 K's... Jacob Booden is 3-0 and carries a 3.96 ERA... Eric Holmes has made nine appearances and three starts this season to collect a 2-1 record and a 3.90 ERA... opponents are hitting .269 against Bradley.
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.
LAST FIVE GAMES: Western Illinois is hitting .237 and has scored 28 runs over the last five games... Tom Lilja is hitting .364 with 18 totals bases including three home runs and eight RBI... Dan Dispensa has a .350 average in that time period... Danny Marcuzzo is hitting at .400 clip while John Koszulinski has a .316 average with a home runs and five RBI... Alexander Zarate is 1-0 in his two starts in the last five games with 0.77 ERA in 11.2 innings... the staff's ERA is 4.88 and opponents are hitting .302 against the Leathernecks.
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.
BIG FLY: Tom Lilja hit two home runs on Sunday against South Dakota State... it was the first time the Leatherneck slugger went deep twice in one game and now has a League best eight home runs on the season... it was the first time since Andrew Hagins did the same against the Jackrabbits on May 22, 2010... the junior collected 18 total bases this past week.
QUALITY STARTS: Zach Sterling and Alexander Zarate each notched quality starts this past week... Sterling went 6.0 innings and allowed three earned runs against SDSU on Saturday... Zarate went 6.0 innings and did not allow a run against Eastern Illinois on Tuesday.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: Alexander Zarate did not allow a run against the Panthers of Eastern Illinois on Tuesday... Garrett Bolt and Ryan Wachholder came in and secured the shutout... it was the first time the Leathernecks shutout an opponent since 2009 against Medaille College.
SIMILAR START: Western Illinois started 1-3 in the Summit League last season as well... the Leathernecks took one from North Dakota State in 2010... the next series in 2010 was with IPFW and the result was the same as Western was only able to take one from the Mastodons.
