The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team will continue their non-conference schedule with their home-opening series against the Davenport Panthers from Friday to Sunday. The series starts on Friday at 1:00 p.m., before a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., and finishes with a game on Sunday at 12:00 p.m.

UIS (4-2)

The Prairie Stars are coming off a cold-weather weekend in Joplin, Missouri which saw them go 2-1. On Friday, the Stars dominated the University of Mary, 13-3, as they scored runs in seven of the nine innings. Saturday saw UIS face a very good Minnesota State - Mankato team. Both teams were able to record hits and score runs, but the Stars came away with the win behind 5 RBIs from Mark Kattula and a 3-run home run from TJ Yakimisky in the bottom of the seventh inning. Late Sunday night the Prairie Stars played the hosts, Missouri Southern. MSSU jumped into the lead early as they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning. UIS tried to fight back as Mark Kattula hit a homer in the fourth. The Lions added two more insurance runs to go up 5-1. Ivan Dahlberg recorded an RBI in the sixth on a sac fly. In the ninth inning the Prairie Stars loaded the bases, but the MSSU was able to get out of the jam as he struck out Brant Vanaman to complete the win. 

For his efforts over the weekend, Mark Kattula was named GLVC Offensive Player of the Week. Kattula Batted .636 (7-for-11) with a .643 on-base percentage in three games. He totaled 10 RBIs while scoring 4 runs of his own. Kattula had three doubles and two home runs for a 1.455 slugging percentage. He currently leads the GLVC in doubles (4) and RBIs (11). 

Davenport (0-4)

The Panthers opened their 2024 campaign on the road against the #4 ranked team in the country, Central Missouri. Davenport was able to keep Game One of the series close, only falling 3-1. The next three games Central Missouri showed why they are ranked so high, scoring over 10 runs in all three. UCM won 10-2, 12-3, and 10-4 for the weekend sweep. DU's weekend was highlighted by Josh Robinson and Carson Price, who both finished with 3 RBIs. Robinson went 5-for-12 (.417) with a double and home run. Price went 4-for-10 (.400) with a double and two home runs. 

The Panthers went 27-26 in 2023, with a 20-10 record in GLIAC play. DU lost six of the ten players that were named to All-GLIAC teams last year. Tyler McKinstry, Carson Fischer, and Issac Van Dyke all return for the Panthers pitching staff a year after being named to All-GLIAC teams. 

How to Follow

Every home game of the 2024 season will be streamed for free on GLVCSN. Live stats will be available on uisprairiestars.com. Both the stream and live stats link can be found on the Baseball schedule on the UIS Athletics website.