Baseball Pre-Game Huddle (Used for Feb. 22, 2023 Preview Photo)

Baseball Set for Four Games in Four Days to Begin 2023 Slate

Will play Greenville, Nebraska Wesleyan, and Fontbonne

2/22/2023 11:00:00 AM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University baseball team will open its 2023 campaign with four road games. The Green and White's season will take on Greenville University, Friday, Feb. 24, with a start time of 1 p.m. at Robert E. Smith Field. The Titans will tangle with Nebraska Wesleyan University, Saturday, Feb. 25, with a 3 p.m. start time. IWU will then play NWU and host Fontbonne University, Sunday, Feb. 26, at 11 a.m., and 1:30 p.m., respectively. Saturday and Sunday's games will be played at Shaw Park in St. Louis, Mo.

The road trip will mark the Titan debuts for 11 freshmen and six transfers. The new-look team will be returning senior Jalen Ping (Chatham, Ill.-Glenwood), who had a breakout campaign for IWU in the 2022 season. Ping manufactured the fifth-highest batting average on the team with a .308 clip. The Chatham, Ill. native led the offense with 143 at-bats and 15 two-baggers. Additionally, the senior is the lone returner to have started every game from a season ago. Junior Louis Perona (Chicago, Ill.-Lane Tech) is looking to pick up where he ended last season as Perona posted the third-highest batting average (.386), in 88 plate appearances.

Junior Jacob Cyrus (Glen Ellyn, Ill.-Glenbard South) compiled the lowest ERA of any qualified Titan pitcher with a 3.13 earned run average in 43 innings of work.

Entering his 36th season at the helm of the program, head coach Dennis Martel is just 31 wins away from eclipsing the 900-win mark. In his 35 years at IWU, his teams have posted a 31-win season six times, most recently in 2013. Martel has a career record of 869-577-3 through 35 seasons, as well as a 428-231 mark in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin action.

Coming into the opening weekend, Greenville owns a record of 0-2 after dropping a pair of contests to Mississippi University for Women. NWU enters Saturday's action with an unblemished 3-0 clip as the Prairie Wolves swept a three-game series against the University of Dallas. Having already played five games thus far, and who is scheduled to play Wheaton on Friday, Fontbonne holds a record of 2-3. The Griffins, who started out 2-0, most recently got swept at the hands of Sewanee University.

GU and the Titans have met on the diamond a total of 18 times dating back to the 2001 season. IWU holds the 13-5 all-time series record. However, the Panthers are currently riding a two-game winning streak.

Saturday's contest against NWU will mark the first time that the two programs will meet.

Dating back to the 1996 campaign, the Green and White have squared off with the Griffins a total of 15 times. In the all-time series record, IWU owns a convincing 11-4 advantage. Although, recent history has been in the favor of Fontbonne, who is coming into Sunday's battle having won two straight against the Titans.

Live results and live video links can be found on iwusports.com, on the baseball schedule page.

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