EVANSVILLE, Ind. – With only three weeks and nine conference games remaining before the 2023 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, the University of Evansville baseball team will hit the road this weekend for an important Valley series against Illinois State in Normal, Illinois.
The series will begin on Friday night at 5 p.m. in a contest that can be seen live on ESPN+. It will continue on Saturday and Sunday afternoons with 3 p.m. and 1 p.m. contests, respectively. All three games of the series can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 107.1 FM-WJPS and the Old National Bank/Purple Aces Sports Network from Learfield.
Evansville will enter the weekend series at 26-18 overall and 9-9 in the MVC. The Purple Aces are currently in fifth place in the Valley standings, just two games out of third place, but only four games up on last-place entering this weekend’s series.
Evansville knocked off Butler, 4-1, on Wednesday night behind strong pitching from senior Tyler Denu, grad student John MacCauley, freshman Max Hansmann and junior closer Nate Hardman. Hardman is a Normal, Illinois native and attended University High School in the shadows of Illinois State. Hardman earned his sixth save of the year on Wednesday night with a scoreless ninth inning, and he has not allowed an earned run in his last four appearances, while earning three saves for UE. Overall, he ranks second in the Valley with the six saves, and in eight Valley appearances this year, Hardman is 1-0 with three saves and a 0.87 ERA spanning 10.1 innings of work.
Illinois State will enter this weekend’s series at 17-24 overall and 6-12 in the MVC. Despite being in a three-team tie for seventh place in the league standings, the Redbirds have won each of the last two MVC series, including taking two out of three games at Southern Illinois last weekend. Junior outfielder Auggie Rasmussen leads a balanced Illinois State attack with a .309 batting average, 12 doubles, nine home runs, and a league-best 19 stolen bases. Overall, the Redbirds feature a lineup with seven regular starters hitting above .280 on the year, and they are tied for the MVC lead in stolen bases with 56 as a team.
The same two teams faced each other on the same weekend last year in Evansville, with the Purple Aces sweeping a three-game series at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium. Overall, Illinois State leads the all-time series, 67-56-1.
