Mama, don't let your babies grow up to play road games,
Let 'em pick grounders at Shorty's kept plot,
Best to reach classrooms and study a lot.
— Apologies to Willie, but one poem is permitted every 10 years.
In an otherwise pedestrian school year for Illini women's sports, Tyra Perry's softballers are on the move.
They're 28-10 and harboring NCAA dreams as they carry a 9-2 record at Shorty Eichelberger Field and a 7-2 Big Ten mark — both losses to Minnesota strikeout whiz Sara Groenewegen — to Michigan State this weekend before traveling to Nebraska next weekend.