MACOMB, Ill. – Western Illinois and Oakland will square off this weekend for four games. The series looms large as the Leathernecks look to continue to climb the Summit League standings. Last weekend saw the Purple & Gold take two from Oral Roberts. The Leathernecks look to continue the improved play as Summit League action hits the road.
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The Match Up
Who: Â Western Illinois vs. Oakland
When: Friday, April 22 (2 p.m.) • Saturday, April 23 (11 a.m. & 2 p.m.) • Sunday, April 24 (12 p.m.)
Location: Rochester, Mich. • OU Baseball Field (500)
 Coverage
Live Stats • OUGrizzlies.com (free)
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SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GRIZZLIES: Oakland will host Western Illinois for four games this weekend and the Golden Grizzlies will start the series with a 7-20 record with a 1-7 mark in Summit League play... John Musachio (Bradley, 1996) is in his third season with the Grizzlies... as a team Oaklans is hitting .272... Tim Ryan is hitting .336 with 15 RBI and is 13-18 in stolen base attempts.... D.J. Jarrad has started every game this season is collected four doubles, two triples and a home run to drive in a team high 19 runs... Mike Carson has a .319 average with a .436 slugging percentage... Russell Luxton has a 2.93 and a 2-1 record with a save... Mark Leichtman is 0-3 with a 3.56 ERA... Jeff Gorecki is 0-1 with a 4.56 ERA... opponents are hitting .315 agaisnt OU and the team ERA is 5.73.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 .248 in the last five games (2-3) with a .338 slugging percentage and a .344 on-base percentage... the Leathernecks crushed two home runs and drove in 26 RBI in that time frame... Matt Igara is hitting .389 and is slugging .500 with seven hits in the last five games… Danny Marcuzzo is hitting at .368 clip and slugging .632 with 12 total bases… Dan Dispensa is hitting .353 with a .412 slugging percentages.
DYNAMIC DUO: Tom Lilja and Dan Russell are near the top of the Summit League in several categories... Lilja has scored 28 runs which second best in the league, he is third with 28 RBI and leads the league with eight home runs... Russell carries a 3.10 ERA which is second in the league... opponents are hitting .218 against Russell which is the best in the league... he is also tied for second in strikeouts with 45... leads the league in backwards K's with 20 and has allowed the fewest runs in the league (27).
HONORARY COACH: Detroit Lions' tight end Tony Scheffler will be an honorary member of the Purple Army when the team invades Rochester, Mich… he will be an honorary coach for the Oakland series and follows the Leatherneck baseball closely and also played baseball along with his impressive football career at Western Michigan... he went to high school with assistant coach Todd Coryell.
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 25... the sophomore is hitting .320 and had a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season… Dispensa also leads the team in OBP at .442.
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 nine quality starts (6 IP and fewer than 3 earned runs)… Russell is 4-3 with a 3.10 ERA and 45 K's… Sterling is 3-2 and has a 3.40 ERA with four straight quality starts.
SHUTOUT: Western Illinois blanked eastern Illinois on April 5, 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: Matt Igara leads the team with .878 OPS (on-base + slugging) and is also responsible for 28.79 runs created according to the runs created category… Tom Lilja is at .816 in OPS.
TOTAL BASES WATCH: Tom Lilja is second in the league with 70 total bases after his big weekend... Matt Igara is second with 69 total bases... as a team the Purple & Gold is second in the Summit with 451 bases.
SOS: The Leathernecks strength of schedule rating is currently at 79 according to Boyd's World... The team's best win of the season came over Georgia State... the Panthers had an RPI of 93 and are currently 27-12.
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 Oakland and 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.
TOP OF THE CHARTS: Matt Igara leads the league with a 338 batting average, doubles with 13 and hits with 50… and Tom Lilja is third with a .288 average… the Leathernecks also have three of the top four sluggers, Lilja is first with a .490 percentage while Igara is slugging .466 which is good for second and Austin Cowen is fourth with .331.
BY THE NUMBERS: The Leathernecks are currently ranked seventh in The Summit League in team batting average (.266)… third in slugging percentage (.367) and fifth in on-base percentage (.362)... Western Illinois is in first in runs scored (189), third in hits (326), third in RBI (166), second in doubles (61), first in home runs (20), third in total bases (451), and first in sacrifice bunts (34).
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EXTRA BASES: Western Illinois hitters have combined for 92 multiple-hit games this season... Matt Igara has 20 games with two or more hits while Austin Cowen (9), Dan Dispensa (12), Tom Lilja (8), Bryan Jordan (9), Ryan Cowhey (7), Danny Marcuzzo (7), John Koszulinski (9) 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 (3), Cowhey (1) and Giglio (3) have all recorded three hit games... the team has also combined for 37 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... five 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 10 games.Â
