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It was a fairly windy Saturday, but lots of beautiful people showed up at Duffy Bass Field to watch the middle game of the series between the Salukis of Southern Illinois and the local Redbirds of Illinois State.  The Redbirds didn't let them down, defeating the foes 2-1 in a 15 inning marathon.  It was the second straight extra inning game as Friday evenings contest went 12.  Fridays game ended with a walk off homer, Saturdays with a sac fly driving scoring a baserunner. Southern, over all is a game under .500 but their 3-11 record in the Valley shows the struggles they are having this season.  The Redbirds are 28-12 and 8-5 in the Valley after the win on Saturday.  At Duffy Bass Field, the Redbirds are 10-2. The highlight in the first 8 innings was a home run hit by Paul DeJong over the right field boards. 20140426 Southern Illinois at Illinois State baseball photos - Images by Alan Look

NCAA Men's D3 Championship slimmed down to 8 teams after action on Friday evening.  At Illinois Wesleyan, the Dickinson Red Devils trumped the Wheaton Thunder and shortly after the host Titans of Illinois Wesleyan thumped the Knights of Calvin.  The Titans and Red Devils meet on Saturday night at Shirk Center in Bloomington. 20140314 Wheaton v Dickinson NCAA D3 Sweet 16 game @ IWU - Images by Alan Look 20140314 Calvin v Illinois Wesleyan NCAA D3 Sweet 16 game at IWU - Images by Alan Look  - Chimper -

Basketball season is starting to wrap up and March Madness is getting underway, so it's a bit hard to begin to think about football.  Let's think about it anyway.  The NFL Draft this year begins on May 8 and ends on the 10th.  That's under 2 months away.  It's also good to start talking about it before we all get headed outside to do all those chores and activities we haven't done since October. Looking through our archives and the web listings of Draft Prospects, we came up with about 20 that played in Normal at Hancock Stadium.  Of course, with transfers and such we may have missed a couple.  In our archive of that near 20, we found images of 11. Rankings can be found on the web, but the number 5 sticks in our head as the highest listed for a position that played here.  Include in listings are:  Jimmy Garoppolo, Erik Lora, Colton Underwood, Ray Agnew, Josh Aladenoye, Greg Hardin, Kurt Hess, Winston Wright, Cole Jirik, Doug Peete, Billy Turne...

The Green Knights of St Norberts jumped out to a small lead, but never led by more than 4 points till Jordan Nelson hit a 2 point jumper to tie the game with 14:12 showing ont the 1st half clock.  That was as close as the game got the rest of the way to the final buzzer.  The next score was a three pointer by Tital Michael Mayberger.  The Titans never relinquished the lead taking the game 84-68 at the end of play.  The Titans will continue to the Sweet Sixteen in a game they will host at Shirk Center on Friday March 14th at 7:30 pm against the Calvin Knights. 20140308 St Norbert at Illinois Wesleyan 2nd Round D3 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament photos - Images by Alan Look  - Chimper -

The Normal Community Ironmen stormed the floor, taking the lead shortly after the Vikings won the tip off.  The Vikings would not score in the first 8 minute period.  The win for the Iron, sends them to the Sectionals at United Township on Tuesday evening. 20140307 Normal Community Ironmen v Danville Vikings Regional Boys Basketball Championship photos - Images by Alan Look  - Chimper -

After taking the CCIW outright with a record of 23-3 in the regular season, the Titans fell flat in the championship game against the Thunder of Wheaton College.  Returning to Shirk Center for Wheaton was Nate Haynes who has played there several times during his high school career at Normal Community. The bucket just seemed to close every time the ball hit the rim or glass when the Titans put up the ball hitting only 23 of 47 shots from the floor and only 15 of 27 free throws.  The Thunder faired better, opening up the hoop for 25 of 45 from the floor and 30 of 33 from the free pass line. Dylan Overstreet led the Titans with 15 points, Tyler Peter for the Thunder with 29.  NCHS product Nate Haynes finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds. 20140301 Wheaton Thunder at Illinois Wesleyan Titans CCIW Mens Basketball Championship photos - Images by Alan Look  - Chimper -

There was a lot of fanfare on Senior night at Uhigh Friday February 28th.  The game started with the traditional tip off, but immediately headed the direction of Keita Bates-Diop the Ohio State Recruit.  Bates-Diop was one point from breaking the University High School all time points record held by Seth Hubbard.  All the early passes went the way of Bates-Diop with a couple missed opportunities, the record was finally broken with a short shot from under the basket.  Action was halted while an announcement was made with the game ball ultimately ending up in the hands of his mother. At half time several recognitions were made.  Arion Workman received an athlete of the year award from a local radio station and two others from the Pioneers football team were recognized for play.  Bates-Diop wasn't overlooked as a representative from the McDonalds Corporation presented a national award. The game ended with the Pioneers extending their winning stre...