CHICAGO—Challenge and experience are two words to describe the 2020 Illinois Institute of Technology baseball season. The Scarlet Hawks are set to face six opponents currently ranked on the latest National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA)/d3baseball.com Poll (February 23), which includes their season-opening three-game swing at No. 4 Washington University (Mo.) on February 29-March 1 in St. Louis. Considering IIT returns a whopping 31 athletes from 2019, it's a challenge they're molded to accomplish.
"We return that first full recruiting class that our staff was able to bring in 2016," said IIT head baseball coach Ed Zeifert. "The maturity and growth that group has gone through allows our younger guys a stable environment in which to learn, grow and compete. Our seniors have gone through some pretty low lows and have given us the strength and leadership to go out and play one of the top schedules in the country."
The Scarlet Hawks marquee game of the season will take place on Sunday, March 15 when they pay a visit to defending NCAA Division III Champion No. 1 Chapman University in Orange, California. No. 18 North Central (Ill.), No. 21 Concordia University Chicago, (R.V) Benedictine and (R.V.) Aurora make up the opponents on the current NCBWA/d3baseball.com poll. Elmhurst, Caltech, Whittier, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Rose-Hulman and University of Chicago (Progressive Rate Field) make up the remaining non-conference tilts on IIT's 2020 schedule.
Austin Richardson, Connor Blake, Elijah Schmit and Luke Leonard will strive to make an immediate impact as freshmen for the Scarlet Hawks.
Associate head coach Jim Leyhane along with assistants D.J. Rybski and Brady Roberts round out the IIT staff, who've all played a monumental role in the direction of the program.
"The hard work and talent put in by everyone in our program gives us the ability to compete in that front part of our schedule to make sure we're ready to play well in the NACC," said Zeifert.