Baseball during the national anthem against UW-Oshkosh

Baseball Enters Conference Play at Millikin

Titans coming off series win against UW-Oshkosh

3/24/2026 2:00:00 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - After completing its first 15 games of the season against non-conference opponents, the Illinois Wesleyan University baseball team begins its College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin slate Wednesday, March 23, at No. 22 Millikin University. First pitch between the Titans and Big Blue is slated for 6 p.m. at Workman Family Baseball Field.

Illinois Wesleyan heads back on the road with a 3-12 record, most recently taking two-out-of-three from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. IWU completed its first home series, taking the final two games. The two wins powered the Titans to their first series win of the season.

Millikin completed its first CCIW twin bill with Wheaton College Saturday, March 21. The Big Blue and Thunder split the double feature and will enter the midweek match at 15-4. In a series dominated by IWU, the Titans have won 83 out of the 124 contests since 1988. Head coach Michael Kellar is 3-0 against the Big Blue after sweeping them in 2025, ultimately ending MU's season in the CCIW Tournament. The IWU offense has scored 852 total runs at an average of 6.87 per game against the Big Blue.

The Titan offense got a boost from sophomore Ben Ford (Naperville, Ill.-Waubonsie Valley) this past weekend, as he leapfrogged his way to the team lead in batting average at .361. Ford is coming off a series that saw him hit over .500, going 8-for-14 with a double and triple. On the season he is hitting .361 with a team-highs in hits (22) and RBIs (14). A mainstay at the top of the order for the Titans, he has recorded a hit in seven straight games and in 14-out-of-15 contests. In his last three games, Ford has driven in six runs to electrify the IWU bats.

The support cast around Ford has been the rest of the top of the order in sophomores Matt Hudik (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) and AJ Weller (Geneseo, Ill.-Geneseo), junior John Philip Ferraro (Oak Park, Ill.-Oak Park River Forest), and senior slugger Jack Flagg (Oak Park, Ill.-Oak Park River Forest). Hudik and Weller round out the top-three in average at .357 and .356, respectively. Ferraro and Flagg have provided the pop in the order with 16 combined extra-base hits. Flagg has hammered three home runs and Ferraro leads the squad in doubles with seven.

The Green and White's pitching staff found a spark in sophomore Brennan Tomhave (Pittsfield, Ill.-Pittsfield) over the weekend. The hard-throwing righty threw a career-high five innings and struck out a new-best seven batters. On the year he has appeared in five games, all out of the bullpen, striking out 14 batters in 12.1 innings of work. Senior Will Davidsmeier (Virginia, Ill.-Beardstown) leads the crew in earned run average at 5.06. He has appeared in five games with two coming on starts, working over 20 innings.

The Titans will take the field at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 23 against Millikin. The Big Blue will provide live stats which can be found here along with a live stream found here.

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