East Peoria, Ill. - The Illinois Central College baseball team (22-33) is ready to turn the page to postseason play, as the Cougars head to Lincoln Land for a triangular to open up the Region 24 Tournament. The Cougars will play the John Wood Blazers (25-29) and hosts Lincoln Land (35-17) on Friday afternoon and into the evening. There are other 'pods' in the region, with Parkland and Heartland serving as hosts. 

John Wood took the series with ICC (3-1) and Lincoln Land split with the Cougars (2-2) during the 2024 regular season. There's certainly the potential for plenty of offense in either game, as the winning team in all eight combined games needed five or more runs to win in seven of those matchups.

OFFENSIVE STATISTICAL LEADERS
Batting Average | Luke Doty | .335
OPS (On Base Plus Slugging) | Luke Doty | .971
Hits | Luke Doty | 60
Doubles | Tyler Bishop | 12
Triples | Luke Doty | 5
Home Runs | Kannon Kleine / Luke Doty | 5 each
RBI | Nick Piazza | 35
Walks | Griffin Roesch | 35
Hit by Pitches | Bryce Bishop | 11
Stolen Bases | Luke Doty | 26 for 29 (89.7%)

PITCHING STATISTICAL LEADERS
Innings Pitched | Gavin Thompson | 60.1
Games Started | Gus Lucas | 13
Pitches Thrown | Gage Burdick | 1,192
Wins | Gavin Thompson | 5
Saves | Ian McGhiey / Chase Martin | 2 each
Strikeouts | Gage Burdick | 81
Strikeouts Looking | Gage Burdick | 25
ERA | Gavin Thompson | 4.62
Batting Average Against | Aidan Leemans | .208

HOW THE TOURNAMENT WORKS
Once Friday's games are complete, it will come down to what the records are of each participating team (ICC, John Wood, Lincoln Land). If a team is (2-0), they're in the Championship game at 11am on Saturday. If all three teams end up (1-1), ICC would play John Wood at 11am with a winner-take-all Championship at 2pm vs. Lincoln Land. 

HE SAID IT - QUOTE FROM COACH BRETT KELLEY
"We've been really good defensively all season, so I see that standing up. We're starting to hit the ball pretty well. We need some players obviously to step up and our good players have to play good. It's that time of the year. Our pitching needs to be a little bit better than what it has been, but we have guys that they can get it done, so hopefully they'll be able to do that this weekend and we'll get to advance."

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
2024 Region 24 Tournament
vs. John Wood & Lincoln Land
Claude Kracik Field - Springfield, Ill.
3:00 PM & 6:00 PM