What Illinois-Springfield baseball learned from its first trip to the NCAA finals
CARY, N.C. — After years of trying and coming close, the Illinois-Springfield baseball team finally broke through and earned its first-ever trip to the NCAA Division II national championship.
It will have to wait before claiming its first victory at the finals. The Prairie Stars came, saw and were quickly conquered, as their bats went cold in back-to-back losses to Point Loma and Rollins.
Coach Ryan Copeland’s Midwest Region champions managed only three runs over their 18 innings at the USA Baseball National Training Complex to see their season come to a disappointing end with a 48-11 record.
“As a head coach, you know at some point the season is going to end,” Copeland said. “You hope it’s going to be with a win, but only one team gets to do that. Unfortunately, that wasn’t us.”
Tough pair of losses
UIS, the seventh seed in the double-elimination tournament, was one of six teams making their first national finals appearance. They lost their opener 8-1 to second seeded Point Loma on Saturday before coming up a run short in a 3-2 setback to No. 6 Rollins on Monday.
The story of both games was similar: A usually potent offense that lost its punch at precisely the wrong time.
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The tournament got off to a promising start when Asher Bradd led off with a single, advanced to second on a single by Brandon Bannon and scored on a one-out hit by Austin Alderman. But instead of gaining some early momentum by putting up a big first inning number, the rally came to an abrupt end when Kal Youngquist bounced into double play.
Point Loma scored three in the bottom of the first and the Prairie Stars never recovered.
It took until the eighth inning of their second game for them to score again. It came on a two-run homer by All-American Zion Pettigrew that did little more than give UIS and its contingent of fans that made the trip to North Carolina a temporary glimmer of hope.
“I felt like we just needed one to get us going,” Pettigrew said of his 28th homer of the season. “Unfortunately it happened to come late in the game. I was definitely fired up about it. My teammates felt it. It just didn’t fall our way this time.”
The most frustrating aspect of the Prairie Stars’ performance at the plate was their inability to cash in on the chances they did have. They batted .339 as a team and averaged 10.1 runs per game coming into the week, but left 17 runners on base in their two losses.
Other than Pettigrew’s home run, the only two other extra base hits UIS was able to muster was a two-out double by DH Hunter Phelps in the seventh inning against Rollins and a double by Pettigrew against Point Loma.
“We saw some stout pitching. Everybody we faced was really good,” Phelps said. “Obviously we’ve got to get big hits. We can’t just go single, single. We’ve got to do more.”
Building on the experience
Despite the quick exit, Copeland said the Prairie Stars’ time in Cary was a positive experience both for this year’s team and the future of the program.
“The road to get here is as hard as people think it is. I would say it’s harder,” he said. “We’ll have time to reflect on that in a few days, but I think the experience of being here still matters. We lose a lot, but we also return a lot. We’ll reload in recruiting, which will make us talented enough to get here again. Whether we do it or not, we’ll be talented enough to do it.”
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Whether it happens next year or sometime farther in the future, Copeland believes his team will be better prepared to stay longer and perhaps bring home a national championship once it makes its World Series return.
“When we get back, we’ll have that feeling that we’ve been here before,” he said. “I think it’s good for our program to officially break through on the national stage. There’s something about teams that get here that get immediate respect. And we hadn’t done that yet.
“As much as we’ve accomplished — regular-season conference championships, 40-win seasons, guys playing pro ball — it doesn’t mean a whole lot until you get to Cary. I’m very proud of that. It doesn’t feel good right now, but we’ll make sure it creates a lot of momentum for our program.”
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: NCAA Division II baseball finals: Illinois-Springfield wrapup
