Searching for one more win

The IU baseball team begins conference play this weekend fresh off a disappointing home loss to Wright State that denied coach Bob Morgan his 1,000th career victory.\nThe Hoosiers (14-3) are headed west to take on the Fighting Illini of Illinois in a four-game series that begins today at 4:05 p.m.\nAside from Wednesday's back-and-forth 7-6 shortcoming, IU has been nothing short of spectacular in the early going.\nMorgan's club is batting a solid .281 as a team and posts a league-best 2.64 earned run average, just a hair better than their weekend opponents who come in with an ERA of 2.65.\nSophomore Corby Heckman heads to Champagne, Ill., with the league's fifth-best average, batting .418, and junior pitcher Chris Behrens (2-0) comes into the game with the Big Ten's lowest ERA at 0.92.\nBut recently Morgan has been more vocal about his team's inability to score runs when they get runners on base.\n"When we get to Big Ten play, we're going to have to have better situation hitting then we have had," Morgan said. "Hopefully that will come in time."\nBut the Hoosiers did show some signs of improvement in Wednesday's game.\nSenior Brad DeStefano singled to lead off the fifth, then advanced to third on an error and a passed ball. Senior Mark Calkins then stepped up and delivered a routine ground ball to the right side of the infield that scored Destefano from third. \n"It's definitely something we have to work on, but I think it will come around," DeStefano said. "It's still early in the season, but we need work on it especially heading into Big Ten play because those games are always so close and competitive."\nThe Fighting Illini stand at 10-3 heading into conference play. Richard "Itch" Jones' club boasts the Big Ten's fourth-best batting average at .301 and are place second in the league with 12 home runs. \n"We're going to play a very good team this weekend so hopefully we can win three out of four. That's our goal," Morgan said. "It's going to be a tough series on the road so we'll have to play well and give ourselves some opportunities."\nFifth-year senior and team leader Ryan Smith (3-0, 1.46 ERA) said the team is ready start the conference schedule.\n"During a Big Ten weekend, it's four games right in a row and they are all very big games," Smith said. "It's a battle every time. We really need to focus, stick together as a team, and I think we'll be okay"