The Billikens’ baseball game against Illinois College should have been a chance for Head Coach Darin Hendrickson to achieve his 500th career win.
However, due to the rainstorm Wednesday, March 26, the game was canceled. Now, Hendrickson will attempt to reach that milestone against Fordham University, a team that has won 12 of its last 15 games.
“Coach Hendrickson, he’s a winner,” senior infielder B.J. Rodrigue said. “He’s teaching us ways to come out on top and moving the program in the right direction, so I’m excited that he will get this recognition soon.”
The Rams come to St. Louis today for the Billikens’ first home conference series of the season. With 10 consecutive wins earlier this season, Fordham will pose a tough matchup for the Billikens, who are winless in conference after being swept in a three-game series at UNC-Charlotte March 21 to 23.
Rodrigue admits the team has been somewhat streaky, losing six of seven games before its five-game winning streak during mid-March.
“The season so far has been a bunch of ups and downs, and when it goes well, it’s gone pretty well,” Rodrigue said. “When we haven’t done well, we weren’t able to play a complete game; we didn’t put our pitching, defense and hitting all together at the same time.”
On the whole, though, the Billikens have had some success this season with offensive production, according to senior infielder Ryan Bennett. They hold a 9-11 record heading into this weekend’s series.
“We’re still just starting to get into the season now, so there are going to be mistakes here and there,” Bennett said. “We started off a little slow, but we’re definitely picking it up now.”
With a win in the series against Fordham, a top-ranked team within the conference, the Bills could make a significant rise in the standings. Their next two conference series are against La Salle and Rhode Island, neither of which have won a conference game and combine for a 12-31 record this season.
“We’re figuring out everyone’s role on the team, and we’re getting ready to put it all together and go on a run,” senior infielder Greg Rodgers said. “Each person on the team knows what’s expected of him; now we’re figuring out what we need to do to win.”
