MACOMB, Ill. – Western Illinois will resume Summit League play this weekend as the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts come into town for four games with Western. Oral Roberts started the first weekend of league play 4-0.

The Match Up
Who:  Western Illinois vs. Oral Roberts
When:  Friday, April 15 (12 p.m.) • Saturday, April 16 (12 p.m. & 3:30 p.m.) • Sunday April 17 (12 p.m.)
Location: Macomb, Ill.

 Coverage
Radio  • Rocky Vision   (free) Flagship Station
 Play-by-Play: Michael Broskowski and Dylan Webstrer
Live Stats  • GoLeathernecks.com (free)
Streaming • Available for Saturday and Sunday's game

Television •  wiutv3 for Friday's game

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES: Oral Roberts will come into this weekend as the top team in the Summit (4-0)... head coach Rob Walton has a 290-120 career record coming into this season in his seventh season at the helm... Walton just clinched his 300th career victory over San Diego State... Pitcher Alex Gonzalez has been named Summit League Pitcher of the Week three times this season (3-4, 3.06 ERA, 43 K's) while Chris Williams (.241, 1 HR, 6 RBI), Chris Elder (.314, 2 HR, 21 RBI) and Nick Baligod (.352, 1. HR, 18 RBI) have all notched Summit League Players of the Week honors... as a team the Golden Eagles are hitting .270 with a .362 slugging percentage... Gonzalez was also named to the College Baseball Foundation's weekly "National All-Star Lineup" sponsored by Diamond on March 16... T.J. Bennett  is hitting .309... Bryan Smolen is 2-2 with a 4.20 ERA... Drew Bowen is 1-0 and carries a 1.80 ERA in his three starts... Joe Spring is 2-0 in his three starts with 3.91 ERA... the team's ERA is 3.82 and oppenents are hitting .254 against Oral Roberts.

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 current season for Western with various viewpoints from the players and staff.

LAST FIVE GAMES: Western Illinois is hitting .264 in the last five games (2-3) with a .382 slugging percentage and a .330 on-base percentage... the Leathernecks crushed six home tund and drove in 26 RBI in that time frame... Tom Lilja is slugging .727 with three bombs and 16 total bases... Anthony Kaskadden is slugging .750 in his two games played during the previous five games including a clutch home run in the eighth inning in the win over Bradley... Beau Below is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in his 5.0 innings.

DYNAMIC DUO: Tom Lilja and Dan Russell are near the top of the Summit League in several catergories... Lilja has scored 26 runs to lead the league, he is second with 25 RBI and leads the league with eight home runs... Russell carries a 3.50 ERA which is second in the league... opponents are hitting .227 against Russell which is the best in the league... he is also tied for second in strikeouts with 43... also has allowed a league low 45 hits.

STRANDED: The Leatherneck pitchers stranded 16 base runners on Wednesday against Bradley... Dustin Hunter danced out of two bases-load jams in his first three innings... Travis Pedersen was summoned out of the bullpen and entered with a 3-2 count and enduced a first-pitch groundball to end the inning.

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 22... the sophomore is hitting .315 and had a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season… Dispensa also second on the team in OBP at .437.

1-2 PUNCH: The top of the Leatherneck rotation continues to be anchored down by Dan Russell and Zach Sterling… The two have combined for eight quality starts (6 IP and fewer than 3 earned runs)… Russell is 3-3 with a 3.50 ERA and 43 K's… Sterling is 2-2 and has a 2.72 ERA with four straight quality starts.

SHUTOUT: Western Illinois blanked eastern Illinois on Tuesday, 4-0… the last time the Leathernecks had previously recorded a shutout was on March 14, 2009 against Medaille College.

STARTER NOTES: Matt Igara and Austin Cowen have started all 31 games this season for the Leathernecks… John Koszulinski and Tom Lilja have appeared in every game.

MONEYBALL: Tom Lilja leads the team with an .885 OPS (on-base + slugging)... Matt Igara currently has an .875 OPS while John Koszulinski has an .837... Igara has a 25.15 in the runs created category... Lilja is at 23.12 in runs created.

TOTAL BASES WATCH: Tom Lilja is second in the league with 66 total bases after his big weekend... Matt Igara is third with 60 total bases...  as a team the Purple & Gold lead the Summit with 398 bases.

SOS: The Leathernecks strength of schedule is currently at 51 according to Boyd's World... The team's best win of the season came over Georgia State... the Panthers had an RPI of 77 and are currently 26-9.

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 43 hits on the season to lead the Summit League and a .331 average... also leads the league with a .325 average in league games... had an 11-game hitting streak... has collected 17 multi-hit games… named Summit League Male Athlete of month for March.

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! 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 four quality starts this season… he went 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... 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…most recently Russell went 6.2 at Bradley while allowing two earned runs… Zach Sterling collected his first quality start at Missouri State with 6.0 IP and three earned runs in the win... Sterling was also impressive in his start at Bradley going 6.0 innings and allowing no earned runs…  Ryan Wachholder also tossed a quality start at Kansas State as he went 6.0 innings and allowed just two earned runs… Alexander Zarate also was impressive as he collected a quality start (6 IP, 0 ER) at Eastern Illinois... Sterling collected his fourth straight QS as he went 6.0 innings vs. SDSU and struck out eight.

BY THE NUMBERS: The Leathernecks are currently ranked fifth in The Summit League in team batting average (.268)… second in slugging percentage (.371) and fourth in on-base percentage (.364)... Western Illinois is in first in runs scored (162), first in hits (287), second in RBI (140), first in doubles (53), first in home runs (18), first in total bases (398), and first in sacrifice bunts (30).

EXTRA BASES: Western Illinois hitters have combined for 80 multiple-hit games this season... Matt Igara has 17 games with two or more hits while Austin Cowen (7), Dan Dispensa (10), Tom Lilja (8), Bryan Jordan (8), Ryan Cowhey (7), Danny Marcuzzo (5), John Koszulinski (8) and Chris Giglio (3) each have recorded one or more multi-hit games... Dispensa is the only Leatherneck to have recorded four hits this season... Igara has collected four three-hit games on the season while Lilja (3), Cowen (1), Dispensa (2), Cowhey (1) and Giglio (3) have all recorded three hit games... the team has also combined for 31 multi-RBI games from individual players... Tom Lilja has recorded six multi-RBI games including one four-RBI performance... Austin Cowen has collected six similar games as well... 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… Marcuzzo has the longest current streak with five games.