The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team will continue their start to the 2024 season in Joplin, Missouri at the MSSU Lion Classic. The Prairie Stars will play one game on February 16, 17, and 18. On Friday, UIS takes on the University of Mary out of North Dakota. Saturday morning the Stars face off against Minnesota State - Mankato. Sunday afternoon UIS wraps up the Classic against the home team, Missouri Southern. 

UIS (2-1)

The Prairie Stars opened up the 2024 season in Tennessee last weekend in what turned out to be a rain-soaked trio of days. The Stars took Game One 8-2 as they jumped on Tusculum early. The second game of Friday started, but was halted after two innings because of the continuous rain in East Tennessee. Sunday morning the second game restarted, and UIS was able to pick up their second win of the season, 4-3. Game Three was another close contest, but the Stars dropped it 4-5, despite outhitting their opponents 12 to 4. UIS swept the GLVC Weekly Baseball Awards for the first weekend, with Mack Clark named the Player of the Week and Gavin Wahlbrink named the Pitcher of the Week. Clark went 7-for-12 (.583) in the three games with three doubles, one home run, 3 RBIs, and scoring two runs himself. Wahlbrink earned the win in Game One of the weekend behind 6 shutout innings with 8 strikeouts and only allowing 3 hits. 

 Mary (0-0)

The Marauders open up their season at the MSSU Lion Classic. In 2023 Mary went 23-27 with a 16-19 record in NSIC play. Mary was picked to finish 9th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Marauders look to lean on returning seniors Noah Hull and Mark Schommer as they try to make the NSIC Tournament once again after just missing out last season. Hull earned All-NSIC Second Team honors in 2023 at designated hitter. He hit 13 home runs, .316 with a .432 on base percentage and a .652 slugging percentage in his second season at UMary. He also added 11 doubles and a triple, scored 35 runs and drove in 38. Schommer is a right-handed relief pitcher that led the Marauders in saves with four in 2023. He also tied for the team lead in appearances (15), ERA (1.10) and WHIP (1.16). In 16.1 innings he struck out 15 and allowed just 12 hits and seven walks.

 Minnesota State - Mankato (0-0)

The Mavericks also will start their 2024 campaign at the MSSU Lion Classic. Mankato will look to build off their 2023 success which saw them make an NCAA Super Regional. The Mavericks finished with a record of 43-18 and a conference record of 25-8. They were picked to finish 2nd in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Mavericks returned 23 players from last year's roster, but will look to juniors Aidan Byrne and Spencer Wright to make a meaningful impact. Bryne started in all 61 games for the Mavericks last season and led the team in runs scored (66) and stolen bases (17) while posting the squad's second-best batting average (.347) and hits (78) mark. He recorded at least two hits in 25 games last season. Wright was the Mavericks' primary option out of the bullpen during the 2023 regular season appearing in 14 games while getting two starts against Davenport and St. Cloud State. The RHP accumulated 39 innings pitched to match a 1-1 record while collecting three saves. Wright finished 2023 with a 2.54 ERA and led the team with a 1.10 WHIP.

Missouri Southern (7-2)

The hosts are the only team that have really kickstarted their season, with their first game being on February 1. The Lions went 3-1 at the Dugan Invitational in Hot Springs, Arkansas, including a win against at the time #17 Southern Arkansas. Since then, MSSU has gone 4-1, including a three game sweep of Ouachita Baptist, a team that beat them in the Dugan Invitational. The Lions enter the weekend ranked #14 in the latest NCBWA National Poll. In 2023, MSSU had an overall record of 45-17 and a 25-8 mark in the MIAA. MSSU earned the #2 seed in the Central Region for the NCAA Tournament, where they ultimately lost to Minnesota State - Mankato. They were picked to finish 2nd in the MIAA Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Lions return twenty-eight players from last season's team, nine of those being named to All-MIAA teams. 

How to Follow

Each game of the Classic will be live streamed and have live stats. Both are linked on the UIS Baseball schedule, as well as the MSSU Tournament homepage.