Indiana State University's Dakota Bakus was named the Missouri Valley Conference baseball Pitcher of the week.
Bakus earned Indiana State it's first win of the season by throwing a complete game shutout against Western Illinois last Friday. Dakota had a no-no into the fifth inning, struck out nine and allowed only two infield singles.
Dakota is a transfer from Southeastern Illinois Community College and lives in Moline Illinois.
Indiana State University head baseball coach Rick Heller announced the signing of three baseball players from Illinois to National Letters of Intent for 2012.
RHP Bobby Boynton from St. Teresa High School, lives in Decatur Illinois. Bobby went 14-3 with a 1.57 ERA and 176 strikeouts in three seasons at St. Teresa.
1B/OF Mike Fitzgerald from Lincoln Land Community College, lives in Rochester Illinois. Mike was an All-American, All-Region and All-Conference player at Lincoln Land.
RHP Rick Martin from Crystal Lake South High School, lives in Lake in the Hills Illinois. Rick throws in the high 80's from a 3/4 arm slot, has a hard slider and should see action right away at ISU.
Top baseball performances in the Missouri Valley Conference last week from Illinois players.
Derek Sprout, Bradley University, Illinois Valley Central High School, the freshman catcher hit .571 with 2 rbi's, a sac bunt and scored three times.
Infielder Alex Staehely, Creighton University, Benet Academy, the sophomore hit .455 with 10 hits, 4 doubles, and 2 triples and drove in the winning run in a 4-3 10 inning victory over Kansas.
Matt Mirabal, Illinois State University, Mt. Carmel High School, the junior catcher drove in the winning run in a come from behind victory against UW Milwaukee on Sunday. In three game stretch Matt went 6-12 with 2 doubles and scored 4 times.
Outfielder Kyle Burnam, Indiana State University, Marshall High School, the junior outfielder went 4-6 at the plate in one game and overall had 2 doubles, 4 rbi's, and scored 4 times.
Jordan Sivertsen, Southern Illinois Carbondale, Carmel Catholic High School, Richmond IL, the junior outfielder went 6-15 at the plate with 3 extra base hits including a home run in a series against South Carolina.
Left handed pitcher Joe Bircher, Bradley University, Joe went 7 scoreless innings, struck out 7 and gave up only 3 hits in a 4-0 victory.
Left handed pitcher Kenny Long, Illinois State University, Dundee Crown High School, earned a win against UW Milwaukee going 3.2 innings, striking out 6.
Cody Forsythe, Southern Illinois Carbondale, the sophomore pitcher threw a complete game going 8 innings, giving up 7 hits and striking out 6 in a 4-0 loss at South Carolina.
From Baseball in Illinois News Sources
Two Terre Haute natives and a Marshall, Illinois product will be among the founding players on the Terre Haute Rex team, Indiana State coach Rick Heller said Tuesday.
Heller, who will not be involved with the summer collegiate league team in any way, said that sophomore Koby Kraemer of Terre Haute South and Brandon Dorsett of Terre Haute North, will stay in Terre Haute this summer, as will outfielder Kyle Burnam, who was a part-time starter for coach Lindsay Meggs and the Sycamores last spring.
Burnam, who was a standout at Marshall, played with Kraemer and Dorsett on the same summer league team in Missouri last year.
Kyle lives in Marshall, Illinois.
