Illinois State baseball's season-opening four-game series at Belmont has been trimmed to two games after Saturday's doubleheader was cancelled due to inclement weather in Nashville, Tennessee. 

The team is now scheduled to play two 9-inning games on Sunday, February 21, starting at 12:00 p.m. CT. 

Fifth-year seniors Joe Butler, Colton Johnson, and Jordan Libman were named Preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference while the Illinois State baseball team was picked to finish second, in the preseason poll taken of the league's eight head coaches, the conference announced Wednesday.

The Redbirds' three selections are tied for the most with Bradley.

Illinois State received 53 points in the poll, 11 behind Dallas Baptist, which received all eight first-place votes. Missouri State was third with 42 points.

Butler batted .242 with a trio of home runs in a shortened 2020 season but led the MVC in batting average during conference play in 2019, hitting a torrid .422 while also leading the league in on-base percentage (.489) and hits (35) during Valley play.

Johnson led the MVC with 37 strikeouts in 2020. He recorded a 3.60 ERA in 25 innings pitched in the shortened campaign.

Libman batted .281 with seven RBI, seven runs scored, and a home run in the shortened 2020 season. Libman hit .299 in 2019, adding 28 RBI, 43 runs scored, and 14 extra-base hits.