After sweeping the No. 1 team in the country, today’s game against Western Illinois doesn’t really matter, right?

Not if you talk to any of the Jayhawk players or coaches. While today’s 3 p.m. game at Hoglund Ballpark could be forgotten following a weekend of success, the two-game series against the Leathernecks is still important for coach Ritch Price and his young team.

“It’s a developmental series for our younger players,” Price said. “Obviously when you put yourself in a position towards Top 25 you have to make sure you don’t have a setback against a midweek opponent.”

Price said he wanted to give playing time to younger players who didn’t see action against Texas over the weekend. He specifically mentioned two freshmen, first baseman Zac Elgie and outfielder Jake Marasco.

Neither of the two highly touted freshmen has played in a game since a 9-8 loss to San Diego State on March 18. Price was particularly concerned for Elgie, especially since starting first baseman Preston Land’s batting average has been up and down. The senior is currently batting .261, his highest point of the season.

“I need Elgie to make progress, so if Land struggles with the bat I can put him in the lineup,” Price said. “I need Morasco to get more at bats, because he’s in a little bit of a funk right now.”

Starters like junior shortstop David Narodowski will most likely be spending a majority of the series in the dugout. Narodowski was actually supposed to receive a break last time the Jayhawks played a midweek game, but junior Robby Price, starting second baseman and backup shortstop, was hurt.

Narodowski understood that sometimes it’s harder to focus on these midweek games, but they still shouldn’t be overlooked, even though No. 15 Texas A&M looms this weekend.

“They’re (Western Illinois) probably not going to be as good as Texas or Texas A&M,” Narodowski said. “We just have to go out and be positive that we can beat them, be loose again and do what we do.”

Freshman starter Lee Ridenhour echoed the same sentiments as Narodowski. Focusing on the game will be even more difficult for Ridenhour however, because he won’t pitch again until the Texas A&M series.

“Definitely we got to win those two,” he said of the weekend series. “We need to go in there and play how we’ve been playing.”

Ritch Price said he will also use this series to get some of his pitchers some innings to work with. Juniors Cameron Selik and Brett Bollman will start the two games, with a plentiful amount of pitchers rested and ready to be used from the bullpen.

“We have really good arms that we haven’t thrown yet,” Ritch Price said. “Selik is going to start Tuesday and we’ll use Bollman Wednesday and we still have (Kevin) Burk in the bullpen and (Thomas) Marcin in the bullpen.”

— — Edited by Carly Halvorson