No. 21 Illinois Springfield continues their home stretch on Saturday afternoon as they welcome No. 7 ranked Quincy to the UIS Baseball Field. The teams will play doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday starting at 12 p.m. each day.

UIS earned a No. 21 NCBWA national ranking this week after a sweep of Indianapolis at home last weekend. The Prairie Stars are 20-6 overall, 10-2 in GLVC play, and 11-1 at their home field.
 
The Prairie Stars pitching staff leads the NCAA Division II in strikeouts per nine innings with 12.2 while Quincy is 17th on that list with 9.9. Ryan Carmack is the individual leader, totaling 65 strikeouts this season and 17.73 per nine innings. Senior Connor McKenna is seventh on that list and Chad Saner is in the top-50. The UIS arms allow an opponent batting average of just .214, the lowest in the GLVC. 

Asher Bradd (.462) leads the UIS offense to a .295 batting average. Bradd is one of nine Prairie Stars with an on base percentage greater than .400. He and Brandon Bannon are among the top-10 batters in the GLVC with 48 and 33 hits, respectively. 

The Quincy Hawks hold one of the top-10 batting averages in NCAA DII baseball and are among the top-5 in home runs and slugging percentage. Quincy is 18-4 overall, 7-1 in the conference, and 4-3 on the road. 

The matchup will be a showcase of the GLVC's top pitching staff as they take on the GLVC's top offense in their first meeting since the 2022 Midwest Super Regionals. The series will start with a broken win streak by one team as the Hawks hold a winning streak of seven games and UIS has six in a row.

The Highway Heartburn food truck will be at the UIS Baseball Field on Sunday. They will accept cash & card, but not student i-card. Sales begin at 11:30 a.m.