Category: University of Illinois Baseball

My hope that Illinois, riding a two-game winning streak, a streak that got them into the Big Ten tournament, would give them the momentum they needed to sweep through the tourney.  Gopher starting pitcher Cole DeVries had something to say about that.

Gopher hurler Cole DeVries

You see, Minnesota was riding a streak of their own.  An eight game winning streak.  Well, make that nine now.  DeVries pitched 8 innings of one-hit ball allowing only one run.  Indeed, the only run the Illini scored was in the second inning on a walk, error and a sac fly.  Trevor Huisinga got the only Illinois hit in the 5th with an uneventful single.  The win puts DeVries at 7-3 for the season.

Matt Whitmore, sometime ace closer, sometime starter, didn’t fare so well.  In 4 innings, Whitmore allowed four runs, three earned on six hits with only one strikeout. 

Final score Minnesota 8  Illinois 1

Read the recap from GopherSports.com

So Illinois’ back is up against the proverbial wall.  They land in the loser’s bracket and are facing Purdue who lost to Ohio State.  Game time is 12:05pm today.

By the way, I’ve put links to the Big Ten Tournament page and bracket on the left sidebar while the tourney is happening. 

Update:  Purdue has scored 4 in the 7th to jump ahead of Illinois 8-5.

 

The Big Ten tournament starts tomorrow.  Fifth-seeded Illinois will take on fourth-seeded Minnesota in the first round at 11:00am.  Illinois has the upper hand in the season series, 3-1.

In other Illini news, Brian Blomquist has been chosen Big Ten Pitcher of the Week following his impressive performance against Michigan State in the last game of the regular season which was a must-win game for the Illini.  Blomquist pitched 8 shutout innings allowing only 3 hits and 1 walk.

 

With the pressure on, the Illini delivered.  Down to the last game, needing to win against Michigan State if they wanted to continue on to the Big Ten Tournament, it seemed like everything went right. 

Brian Blomquist found his groove

  The same could be said for starting pitcher Brian Blomquist.  Bloomer, who was unstoppable at the top of the season then went through a stretch of mediocrity, found his groove and was again the pitcher everyone thought he could be.  Through 8 innings, he allowed 3 hits and one walk and no runs. 

At the same time, Dave Schultz did what he does best and more.  He knocked 2 dingers with 5 rbis.  Ryan Hastings was 4 for 5 with 3 rbis. 

Final score:  10-2

I listened to the post-game interview with Coach Dan Hartleb.  I smiled when he talked about Shawn Roof’s playing above his talent and what he does by getting the players going by constantly talking and rooting (I’m paraphrasing here). 

You see, when I go to home games at Illinois Field, I always stand at the left field fence near the home dugout.  I get a pretty good view of the players as they go out to the field and when they come back in. 

Hartleb’s description of Roof is spot on.  If, for example, the opposition gets a few runs and the Illini finally get the three outs and are on their way into their dugout, Roof is always talking.  And it sounds something like this:

“OKGUYSLETSGOGETTHEMLETSGETFOURRUNSHEREWECANDOIT

LETSNOTGETDOWNHEREWECANDOITLETSGOILLINOIS!”

…or something like that.  It sounds that loud and that fast.  That’s what I like about Shawn Roof.  That and when he goes out to his position at shortstop at the beginning of the inning, he does it like he’s running the 50-yard dash. 

Anyway, congrats Illinois on winning probably the most important game so far this year.  Good luck in the tourney!

It seems nothing can stop Michigan this weekend.  So far, they have gone 3-0 against Iowa (including two 1-0 shutouts today!) and have clinched their 33rd Big Ten title.  In doing this, they have home-field advantage and a first-round bye. 

Northwestern, with one game left tomorrow, have at least clinched second place and the second first-round bye in the tournanment.

Illinois with some luck, may make the tournament.  They lost last night and the first game of today’s doubleheader against Michigan State.  They finally rebounded with a 4-3 win in the second game. 

They were helped by Michigan whose opponents were Iowa.  Going into the weekend, Iowa was one game behind the Illini.  They are now out of the picture.  Penn State was the only other real competition.  Ohio State split with them today but that was enough to prevent them from making a run at the last tourney spot. 

Current Standings (going into Sunday):

2005-06	Big Ten				Overall
Teams	W	L	T	Pct.	W	L	T	Pct.
Michigan	22	9	0	.710	37	18	0	.673
Northwestern	20	11	0	.645	24	31	0	.436
Ohio State	18	12	0	.600	34	19	0	.642
Minnesota	16	14	0	.533	29	24	0	.547
Purdue	15	16	0	.484	30	24	0	.556
Illinois	14	17	0	.452	28	26	0	.519
Penn State	13	18	0	.419	20	35	0	.364
Michigan State	13	18	0	.419	25	29	0	.463
Iowa	12	19	0	.387	23	32	0	.418
Indiana	11	20	0	.355	22	33	0	.400

On a personal note, I was looking forward to attending the Big Ten tourney had it been in at Northwestern’s home turf in Evanston.  It would have been my second tourney in two years as I attended last year’s here in C-U when the good guys finished first.  I took pains to get the time off of work, get accomadations, everything.  I just don’t think finances are going to allow me to travel to Ann Arbor.

Update/Correction:  I corrected the standings as of Saturday.  The Illini are indeed in a do-or-die situation Sunday.  A Michigan State win would put the two teams in a tie for 6th place and MS would win the tie-breaker for Big Ten tournament eligibility because of their series win.

Go Illini!

Update:  Bottom of the 8th of Sunday’s game, Illinois up 6-0. 

It’s a big weekend for Big Ten baseball.  I won’t re-discuss the importance why since I did so a couple posts ago.  Needless to say, the Illini and Northwestern need to win big for their own separate reasons. 

Well, both teams had 3:00 games today, the Wildcats playing Penn State (who were one game back of the Illini) and the Illini playing last place Michigan State.

…and both teams got crushed by their respective opponents. 

Team	R	H	E
Illinois	2	13	1
Michigan State	13	14	0

and

Team	R	H	E
Northwestern	0	10	3
Purdue	11	15	1

 

Two similarities without looking any further.  Both the Illini and NU obviously couldn’t capitalize.  A combined 23 hits (not to mention 4 errors) and they couldn’t muster more than 2 runs?  The games have just ended so there aren’t any media reports out yet.   

Both NU and Illini teams have 3 games left this weekend.  More updates later…

Update:  Here’s an update on the Illini-MS game from CSTV.  The good news for the Illini is that both Iowa and Penn St lost their games too so they remain in 6th place.  Michigan, who beat Iowa, jumps ahead of Northwestern and takes first for themselves. 

 Two big races going on in the Big Ten baseball right now.  Let’s look at the standings before the last weekend of regular play:

 

2005-06	Big Ten				Overall
Teams	W	L	T	Pct.	W	L	T	Pct.
Northwestern	19	9	0	.679	23	29	0	.442
Michigan	19	9	0	.679	34	18	0	.654
Ohio State	16	11	0	.593	32	18	0	.640
Minnesota	13	14	0	.481	26	24	0	.520
Purdue	13	15	0	.464	28	23	0	.549
Illinois	13	15	0	.464	27	25	0	.519
Iowa	12	16	0	.429	23	29	0	.442
Penn State	12	16	0	.429	19	33	0	.365
Michigan State	11	17	0	.393	24	28	0	.462
Indiana	11	17	0	.393	22	30	0	.423

At 19-9, the Northwestern Wildcats and Michigan Wolverines are in a dead heat for first place.  The team that finishes first wins not only the Big Ten title but also the rights to host the Big Ten Tournament next week.

The second big race is for eligibility for the tournament.  The top six team will compete.  As you can see, two teams (Iowa and Penn State) are knocking on sixth place’s door, just one game back. 

The Illini had a chance to gain ground Tuesday but lost to Missouri.  That leaves a four game set this weekend against Michigan St who are tied for last place. 

Good luck, Illini!

 

 

After the Illini dropped three of four to last place Indiana, they need to make up ground if they want to participate in the Big Ten tournament next week. 

As I understand it correctly, the top six teams make the tourney.  Here’s how it stands right now:

Teams	W	L	T	Pct.	W	L	T	Pct.
Northwestern	19	9	0	.679	22	29	0	.431
Michigan	19	9	0	.679	33	18	0	.647
Ohio State	16	11	0	.593	32	17	0	.653
Minnesota	13	14	0	.481	26	24	0	.520
Purdue	13	15	0	.464	27	22	0	.551
Illinois	13	15	0	.464	27	24	0	.529
Iowa	12	16	0	.429	23	28	0	.451
Penn State	12	16	0	.429	19	32	0	.373
Michigan State	11	17	0	.393	24	27	0	.471
Indiana	11	17	0	.393	22	29	0	.431

Hmm.. doesn’t leave much room for error, does it?  The good news is that the Illini are playing four games against Michigan State to end the regular season.  While Michigan St may have a good basketball team and hold their own in football, they just don’t cut it in baseball, I guess.  Here’s hoping the Illini can capitalize on that.

Oh, I’m rooting for the Wildcats of Northwestern.   Why?  So they will end up in first place and host the tournament.  If that’s the case, I’m heading up there to watch the tournament.  So Go Wildcats! 

Speaking of the Wildcats, they have the largest difference between conference (.679) and non-conference winning percentage (.130).  That’s right, they gone 3-20 against non-Big Ten teams.  They had an eleven game losing streak at the beginning of the season.  Now they find themselves tied for first place in the Big Ten.  What a comeback story for the Wildcats!

 Molly Lawhead

The ’06 UI Softball team has had a rough time of it this year.  Their mark of 8-11 conference and 24-30 overall was probably not what they were looking for this year.  They were quite streaky, losing three or four in a row a few times during the season. 

But starting this afternoon, they have a chance to redeem themselves.  They have earned the last seed in the Big Ten tournament.  Play will begin when they take on the Northwestern Wildcats today at 4:30pm in Evanston. 

But Jenna Hall and Co. will have their work cut out for them.  The Wildcats are the No. 1 seed.  Add to that the fact that they will be playing on their home turf.  No double-elimination like the baseball tourney so it’s do-or-die.

Here is the Big Ten Tournament page.

Good luck, women!

Michigan’s power was too much for the Illini in their Senior Day game.  The Wolverines blasted 4 shots, one a grand slam.  Two of those homers belonged to Nate Recknagel.  Michigan managed a 9-6 win over the Illini for their last home game.

That said, it was a fun, interesting game to watch.  The Illini chased Michigan starting pitcher Hess in the 5th after he gave up 9 hits and 4 runs.  The Illini were pretty much in it till the end, forcing Michigan to go to reliever Jenzen in the 9th after a Lars Davis homer and a Ryan Hastings single to put the tying run on-deck.  Jenzen got the last two outs for the save.

Shawn Roof and Kyle Hudson both got 3 hits.  As mentioned, Lars Davis hit a dinger, his fourth of the year.

After the game, in what has become a tradition at the last home game, kids spilled onto the field and played wiffleball with the Illini players.  It’s a pretty cool sight actually.  It must have been at least 50 boys and girls and they all got their chance to bat and run the bases.  And somehow, the Illini defense, for just this one afternoon, didn’t get their throws to first base in time and all the kids were safe.  Every kid got to run all the bases and score.  Pretty awesome.

Some photos from the game and afterwards:

Starter Brian Blomquist looks in to Lars Davis for the pitch call.

SS Shawn Roof hustling off the field.  After the game, it was my privilege to shake Roof’s hand.  I told him that I enjoyed watching him play this season.  Roof is son of former MLB player Gene Roof.  Anyone who has seen Shawn play knows that no one hustles more and no one is more in the game than he is.

DH Dom Altobelli slapping the ball.  BTW, the visitors section is in the background.

The kids filing in after the game for a little wiffleball with the players.

 

Taking a pitch.  That’s starting 3B Joe Bonadonna behind the plate.