MACOMB, Ill. - Western Illinois baseball will play host to the NCAA Division II Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars on Wednesday (March 25) at Alfred D. Boyer Stadium. First pitch for the midweek tilt is set for 3 p.m. with freshman left-handed pitcher J.T. Baksha taking the hill for his first career start as a Leatherneck.

The Leathernecks come in to Wednesday with an overall record of 4-14 and a Summit League record of 2-4 following a pair of losses to South Dakota State last weekend (March 20-22). WIU will look to bounce back behind the bat of Summit League 'Player of the Week' Chris Tschida. 

LAST TIME OUT: The Leathernecks took one of three games against South Dakota State last weekend (March 20-22)... In game one Western scored two in the first and three in the sixth... Four-straight innings of scoring for the Jackrabbits gave SDSU a 8-5 win... Game two turned into a 14 inning marathon... WIU fell behind, 1-0, in the top of the second inning, but would tied the game at one in the bottom of the sixth... LHP Tyler Owings came on in relief and worked the Leathernecks out of a bases-loaded no-out jam in the 11th and bases-loaded one-out jam in the 13th... A walk-off wild pitch plated Colton Pogue to give Western a 2-1 win... In game three, Western and SDSU tied/exchanged the lead five times... WIU scored three runs in the second thanks, in part, to a two-out two-RBI single from Kendall King... SDSU responded with three in the third, but a Chris Tschida two-run home run reclaimed the lead for Western... The Jackrabbits plated at least one run in five of the final six innings to take a 9-7 victory... On the weekend the Leathernecks collected 27 hits with Tschida batting .500 and Mark Garton hitting .300... Saturday's win also marked the first clean sheet for WIU's defense with no errors in 14 innings.

A LOOK AT THE PRAIRIE STARS: UIS comes to Macomb with an overall record of 10-10 and a Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) record of 4-4... The Prairie Stars are led by second-year head coach Chris Ramirez... In his inaugural season Ramirez led Illinois-Springfield to its first 20-win season and the first conference-tournament berth in program history... At the plate the Prairie Stars are led by Gabriel Acevedo... Acevedo has hit two home runs this season with  eight RBI, 11 runs, and two stolen bases... On the mound, starting pitcher Christopher Irwin (1-2) leads the rotation with a 1.44 ERA with 22 strikeouts in four starts... Richard England leads the bullpen with two saves, a 3.46 ERA, and three strikeouts in seven appearances.       

SERIES HISTORY: WIU and UIS met for the first time in program history last season on April 9... The game turned into a nine-inning slugfest that resulted in a 17-10 Leatherneck loss... Western gave up 22 hits while tallying 15 of its own... Head coach Ryan Brownlee used 11 pitchers in the game and 15 in the field.

SUMMIT LEAGUE 'PLAYER OF THE WEEK': On Monday, March 23 Chris Tschida was named The Summit League Baseball 'Player of the Week'... It is Tschida's first career 'Player of the Week' honor... The sophomore shortstop collected four extra base hits, including his first home run of the season and accounted for 10 runs in five games from March 9-15.

PURPLE AND GOLD HOT STREAKS: So far this season Payton Jeffers, Chris Tschida, and Jake Moore have all posted career-high hitting streaks of eight, seven, and six games, respectively... Jeffers and Tschida streaks are still active, and Tschida has also reached base in 10 of his last 10 games.

BLAZING-HOT BATS: From March 8-20 Payton Jeffers, Jake Moore, and Adam McGinnis hit .421, .391, and .318, respectively.. Over that time, Moore led the team with a six-game hitting streak  while Jeffers hit safely in five consecutive games as well... McGinnis notched a six-hit weekend against Fort Wayne.. The weekend performance broke the sophomore out of a six-game slump where he failed to hit or reach base safely, and increased his batting average by over 100 points.  

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