Category: University of Illinois Baseball

University of Illinois had their hitting shoes on Tuesday as they scored 11 runs and beat Western Michigan. The offense included 3 home runs by Lars Davis, Nick Stockwell, and Ryan Hastings.

Davis, who went 4 for 5 with 4 ribbies, raised his season average to .478, good enough to lead the Big Ten. He’s in a dogfight with Mike Mee of Minnesota who’s hitting .476. Mee hasn’t had a chance to up his average lately since his last couple games have been postponed. Davis has six homers to go with his impressive average.

Over the weekend, Illinois kissed their sister against Purdue. They won Friday night and the first game of the double header on Saturday. Scott Shaw pitched a complete game and went to 3-1. Mike Stankewitz pitched another complete game for game 2 but the good guys lost a heartbreaker 2-1.

Finally on Sunday, the Illini had the lead but couldn’t hold on as Purdue won 11-6.

Through Tuesday, Ryan Snowden has extended his hitting streak. He has now hit in 19 straight games going back to last season. He’s hitting .393 for the 2007 season.

Coming up:

This weekend brings Ohio State at home. Ohio State has traditionally been tough and this year is no exception. The Buckeyes are 17-4 (3-1 conf). The nights have been wicked cold so I suppose that could be a factor. I’m planning on attending Friday’s game.

Go Illini!!

Update: Looks like Friday’s game is canceled because of the cold. That means doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.

Another update: Or maybe not. Looks like Saturday’s games have been canceled because of the cold. These games will NOT be made up. As of now, Sunday’s doubleheader is still on. I better check that to be sure… yes, as of Saturday afternoon, they are still on. Sunday afternoon’s forecast calls for partly sunny and 42 degrees.

I’m up for a ballgame. Let’s play two.

Ok, good news first. Canuck catcher Lars Davis took Big Ten Player of the Week last week. How good was he? Try 12 for 14 on for size. How about three homers and 5 rbis? Add to that that he threw out 2 baserunners and even stole a base of his own.

By the end of the week, he was leading the Big Ten with a .492 batting average.

Davis’ hitting spree during the spring break trip came at an opportune time. Before the trip, the Illini had a 2-7 record. With Davis’ help, the Illini went on an offensive tear for the week scoring 67 runs in six games and winning 5 and only losing one. Their record after the week (I know, you can do the math), 7-8.

Tuesday was Illinois’ home opener against Indiana State. To say nothing went right would be wrong. After a rough first inning, Aaron Martin gave us a very solid start.

Unfortunately, the offense was not there at all. Indiana State shut out the team 4-0.

Looking for high points, I can tell you that Lars Davis extended his hit streak to nine games and Ryan Snowden went 3 for 4.

The Illini travel to Purdue for a 4-game set this weekend.

Trivia question: Who was the last Canadian-born Illinois catcher before Davis?

University of Illinois shortstop Shawn Roof received quite an honor this week from his summer college league. The Coastal Plain League named Roof to their All-Decade Team in celebration of their first 10 years in existence.

Not a big deal? Well, take a look at some of the players sharing the honor with Roof. Other names on the CPL All-Decade Team include Justin Verlander, Ryan Zimmerman, Kevin Youkilis and Ty Wiggington. Nice bit o’ company.

Shawn Roof

Roof’s qualifications in the CPL:

Fayetteville SwampDogs, 2005-06
• In 2005, batted a team-best .315 with 47 hits, 24 runs scored, two doubles, 18 RBIs, 49 total bases, a .446 on-base percentage, and 15 stolen bases
• In 2006, batted .268 with 44 hits, 37 runs scored, a double, 19 RBIs, 45 total bases, a .406 on-base percentage, and a team-best 20 stolen bags
• Career .291 batting average with 61 runs scored, 37 RBIs, and 35 stolen bases overall
• Two-time CPL All-Star: starting second baseman of the American CPL All-Star team in 2005 and starting shortstop of the American CPL All-Star team in 2006

Last December, Shawn was kind enough to grant Baseball Zealot Radio an interview. You can hear it during the second half of our fifth show.

Congratulations Shawn!!

University of Illinois catcher Lars Davis is on a tear and the Illini are on a streak.

Thursday, Davis went 4 for 5 (his second 4 hit game in a row) with a home run and 3 rbis. The Illini won 5-2 against Dartmouth. That makes 4 in row and gives them a 6-8 record. Not bad considering they were 2-8 before the streak.

You would think after two 4 hit games, Davis would have a monopoly on the batting average on the team. Not quite. Davis is second on the team with a .458 average. Kyle Hudson is hitting a cool even .500.

Davis leads the team with 3 homers.

But the best news is that next Tuesday, the Illini are playing at home at Illinois Field. I know I’ll be there.

As an Illini fan, I’m celebrating. Someone asked me, “Did you hear about the Illini?” Not thinking, I said, “Yeah! Whew! 17-5! What a win!” Then I realized they were talking about the basketball team’s loss in the March Madness tourney. Sorry, my faux pas. I’m on baseball mode year round.

Anyway, the Illini weren’t short on offense the past two games, scoring 37 runs. They beat Yale 17-5 and Dartmouth 20-10. Granted, the Ivy League is not what it used to be when Lou Gehrig donned a Columbia uni. The composite record for the conference is 26-45.

Still, this has got to be a confidence-builder for the Illini who went into the week with just two wins. Again, it was some new guys as well as some old favorites who are getting the job done. I am starting to look for Brandon Wikoff’s name in the box score. He seems to get in the game somehow. On Sunday’s game against Yale, he was 3 for 6 with 3 runs. Craig Lutes, freshman outfielder came into that game and spelled Kyle Hudson in center and responded by hitting a three run homer, his first of the season.

Freshman Outfielder Craig Lutes

Hartleb must have liked what he saw since there was Craig in Monday’s game against Dartmouth in the DH role. Lutes didn’t disappoint. He went 2 for 4 with his second homerun and 3 rbis

Illinois is off today (their only off-day for the week) but good news… they get to play Dartmouth two more times this week.

Go Illini!!

Illini fans know that our ball players don’t stay idle during the summer season. They hone their craft in summer colliegiate leagues.

Andrew is doing a good job keeping tabs on these leagues at his website called Summer Ball.

Feel free to contact him with info about any summer college leagues in your area and he’ll put up a link.

It was a frustrating weekend for the Illini as they had leads in all three games against University of Texas-Arlington only to lose them. Friday’s game was a heartbreaker lost in extra innings.

Instead of dwelling on the losses (you can check out box scores yourself with fightingillini.com’s new web feature, click on a game on their schedule page and details of the game appear on the right… nice job, web people!), let’s check out Brandon Wikoff’s stats.

Wikoff, a freshman, is wasting no time putting up tasty stats. He’s batting .385 (second on the team behind Kyle Hudson’s .469) with 7 ribbies and 5 runs. Wikoff has displaced Mike Rohde at third base so Rohde can play first for the departing Dave Schultz. Wikoff has been batting near the top of of the lineup, sometimes leadoff, sometimes batting second and those kind of numbers have been handy.

On another note, Shawn Roof has continued his pilfering tear. He stole 4 more bases against UTA last weekend to raise his season total to 10. And no, he hasn’t been caught yet.

The Illini start a seven-game in eight days road tour on Friday in Bradenton, Florida. They play their first northern opponent, Vermont.

Two weeks from today is the Illini home opener.

Were you worried? Just a little bit? I wasn’t.

Ok, maybe a little bit. When the University of Illinois lost all three against Louisiana-Lafayette two weekends ago, it does make one pause to think. But consider this. The Ragin’ Cajuns had the advantage of having played five games already. Not only that, they WON all those games so the Illini weren’t playing patsies.

Anyway, that was then, this is now. Last weekend, the Illini competed in the Al Ogletree Classic, Texas tournament style.

They came out of gate Friday night with something to prove against Sam Houston State. Boy, did they ever! The offense exploded for 14 runs and Lars Davis went 4 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 rbis. Ryan Hastings also knocked in 2. Illini wins 14-5.

Fighting Illini.com Recap

Saturday they played University of Texas Pan-American. This was a tough battle. UTPA had a quick 3-0 lead but the Illini battled to tie it in 6th. Unfortunatly, UTPA scored two more to win 5-3. Kyle Hudson and Freshman Brandon Wikoff both went 2 for 4. UTPA wins 5-3.

Fighting Illini.com Recap

Once again, the Illini had their batting shoes on. Against Stephen Austin, they totaled 16 hits and 11 runs. Shawn Roof tied a University of Illinois record with 4 stolen bases. And check out Lars Davis’ line again! He’s 3 for 6 with 2 runs and 2 rbis, Illini wins 11-5

Fighting Illini.com Recap

 

Lars Davis, Shawn Roof, Brandon Wikoff, Scott Shaw, and Kyle Hudson were named to the All-Tournament Team, Congrats, guys!

As for the lineup the Illini is using here is what they used for Game 1 of the tournament.

Ryan Snowden lf
Brandon Wikoff 3b
Daniel Webb rf
Mike Rohde 1b
Mike Giller dh
Shawn Roof ss
Lars Davis c
Ryan Hastings 2b
Kyle Hudson cf

Coach Hartleb is not tied to this lineup though. They’re trying all kinds of alterations, as it were. They moved up Shawn Roof to the #2 hole for the third game. The DH position is being shared between Dom Altobelli, Mike Giller and who knows who else. Joe Bonadonna started at second for the third game and responded by going 1 for 3 with 2 runs and an rbi.

Next game: Friday, March 9 at Texas-Arlington, the first of a three game set.

Go Illini!