{"id":1292,"date":"2017-04-20T01:04:22","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T01:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/?p=1292"},"modified":"2017-04-20T01:04:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T01:04:22","slug":"rivets-add-ui-springfield-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/04\/20\/rivets-add-ui-springfield-pitcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivets add UI-Springfield pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t<strong>LOVES PARK, Ill. &ndash;<\/strong> Jon Laird will stay in the state to play baseball this summer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Rivets announced on Wednesday that they have added the University of Illinois-Springfield righthander for the Northwoods League season, which starts next month.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tLaird, a junior who has averaged more than a strikeout an inning in his college career, has been used primarily in relief this spring, but Rivets manager Brian Smith said Laird could contend for a starting role.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&ldquo;Jon is really starting to grow into his own,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;The past few years he has seen velocity gains and the coaching staff at UIS was very impressed with his increased pitchability this past fall.&nbsp;We expect Jon to come to Rockford and battle for a job in our starting rotation.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tLaird has no record and a 7.56 ERA in seven appearances, one of them as a starter, for the Prairie Stars. The resident of Amherst, Ohio has walked nine and struck out eight in 8 1\/3 innings for the NCAA Division II school.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Rivets&rsquo; season begins May 30 at Kalamazoo. The home opener is at 6:35 p.m. June 1 against the Wisconsin Woodchucks. The Rivets are offering a $50 four-game pack that includes a replica Rivets jersey, tickets to four select games and all-you-can-eat food (burgers, brats, hot dogs, grilled chicken, popcorn and fountain soda) for the following dates: Friday, June 2; Saturday, June 24; Friday, July 14; Friday, July 28. The four-pack can be purchased only by calling the Rivets at 815.240.4159 or in person at the Rivets Stadium box office. There are a limited number of jerseys available, so don&rsquo;t wait to order this four-pack.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<em>The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League, which will play its 24<sup>th<\/sup> season of summer collegiate baseball in 2017. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, 160&nbsp;Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals), two-time World Champion Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (Boston Red Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Detroit Tigers), Curtis Granderson (New York Mets) and Lucas Duda (Mets). All league games are viewable live via the <a href=\"http:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/\">Northwoods League Website, NorthwoodsLeague.com.<\/a>&nbsp; <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOVES PARK, Ill. &ndash; Jon Laird will stay in the state to play baseball this summer. &nbsp; The Rivets announced  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,11],"tags":[117,102,43,118],"class_list":["post-1292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-players-signings","category-team-news","category-update-ticker","tag-jon-laird","tag-player-signing","tag-rockford-rivets","tag-university-of-illinois-springfield"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rivets add UI-Springfield pitcher - Rockford Rivets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2017\/04\/20\/rivets-add-ui-springfield-pitcher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rivets add UI-Springfield pitcher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LOVES PARK, Ill. &ndash; 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