Category: University of Illinois Baseball

It may be one of those seasons for the Illini.  The kind of year where you’re not sure what team will show up.  They got swept in their first series, then did the sweeping themselves the next.  Last weekend, they won one but lost the last three games.  You just never know.

Fortunately, so far Illinois is doing just fine this weekend.  Saturday, against University of Northern Iowa the Illini did well with the stick and were helped by some poor fielding by the opposition.  They totaled 19 hits including 3 by Lars Davis (that guy is a hitting machine, he’s batting .442 for the season), Ryan Hastings, and Kyle Hudson. 

Jake Toohey has seen better starts, though.  He allowed 7 runs in 4 innings.  Relievers Ben Meeser and Brian Long pitched 5 shutout innings to keep the good guys in the game.  Final score:  13-8

UI takes on sister campus University of Illinois-Chicago this afternoon. 

Don’t forget!  One week from Friday (March 31) is Illinois’ first home game at home game against Purdue.

 

Yikes!  I go away for one weekend and come back to find that the U of I has lost 3 straight.  The Illini played in the Baseball Express Collegiate Classic.  Unfortunately, all the lessons they learned last weekend when they swept Southern Florida had gone by the wayside. 

Well, the good news is that on Friday, they won the first game against the Louisana-Lafayete Cajuns in a crazy 14-12 win where they came back with a 7-run rally in the seventh.  Lars Davis, who has been just about near-unstoppable, had a 3 hit game.

The good news stops about there.

Saturday, the Illini saw their 4 game win streak snapped against UT-San Antonio.  The culprit?  Walks and errors.  UI pitchers allowed six walks and four hit batsmen.  In addition, the fielders committed three errors.  If this sounds familiar, it is.  See the events of the Stetson Invitational.

Against Norte Dame on Sunday, Brian Blomquist was pitching.  So ND was only held to only four runs.  Unfortunately, UI couldn’t get the offense going.  Final score:  ND 4 UI 2. 

The Illini had a chance to redeem themselves in the last game of tournament against Texas A&M.  Nothing doin’ here.  No offense. No pitching.  The Aggies slaughtered the Illini 11-1. 

Lars Davis (.432) and Shawn Roof (.308) and Mike Rohde (.300) are the big hitters so far this season.  Davis also leads in rbis (10) and total bases (tied with Ryan Hastings with 17).  Brian Blomquist has a 2.16 ERA through 3 starts.

Thanks to five shutout innings by Scott Shaw, the UI topped off the 3-game series against University of South Florida with a win to make it a sweep.  The Illini won by a score of 7-6.

Shawn Roof, Ryan Snowden and Chase Kliment (each starting out well this season) had two hits each.

Says Coach Hartleb:

“I’m proud of how our guys fought back after last weekend to get back to .500,” Illini coach Dan Hartleb said. “we moved the ball around the field and some people produced in positions they hadn’t played yet.”

 

Box Score

 

I think I’m going to like this new catcher of ours. 

Illini backstop Lars Davis went 4 for 5 with 2 runs in Game 2 of the series against the University of South Florida.  Yes, the season is only five games old but Davis has 11 hits in 18 at-bats.  Keep it up, Lars!

And yes, the Illini won their second game in a row.  Jake Toohey had a solid start allowing 3 runs in 6 innings and reliever Matt Whitmore pitched a perfect 3 innings in relief.

Another key in the win?  The Illini were errorless in the field for the first time this season.  Fielding mishaps played a big part in their losses in the Stetson Invitational a week ago.

One more game left against USF tomorrow.

 

Just logged on to Gametracker to see how the Illini were doing against University of South Florida only to find the game was over.  But the good news is the Illini won!  The good guys defeated USF 5-1.  Chase Kliment and Ryan Snowden both had 2 rbis each and Brian Blomquist pitched 6 shutout innings. 

More details later as they come in.

Update (3/4):  The fightingillini.com’s storyline on last night’s win was rather interesting.  Three players who hail from nearby Matoon figured prominently in the win.  Snowden, mentioned above, who went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 2 rbis, Kyle Hudson, who had 2 hits and scored two runs, and Ryan Hastings who went 2 for 5 with a run. 

The Illini have to very pleased with Blomquist’s performance.  Aside from his 6 shutout innings, he didn’t allow a walk and allowed only four hits. 

Box Score

 

The UI baseball team will be taking on the University of South Florida on their turf this weekend.  They’ll be looking for win #1 this season.  Two upperclassmen (Brian Blomquist and Jake Toohey) and one newcomer (Scott Shaw) are scheduled to pitch in the three game set.

Probable lineups and scouting report

 

The Stetson Invitational is over and the UI baseball team is already 0-3 for the season.  It just seemed like a case of missed opportunities and bad timing.  On Saturday, they held South Florida to 4 runs but were only able to score 2.  

On the other hand, the bats came alive on Sunday and they exploded for 13 runs.  Sure enough, opponent West Carolina managed to score 14.   Those runs were mostly due to the Illini pitchers’ control problems.  All told, they gave up seven walks and six (yes, six) hit batsmen. 

Trying to look on the bright side, Lars Davis who was playing for the Illini for the first time, went 4-5 for the weekend with 4 ribbies.  This is surely a good sign as he has very big shoes to fill.  Chris Robinson was the Illini catcher who graduated last year and is currently in the Detroit Tigers’ farm system (fantasy leaguers, keep an eye on him… he’s good!).  If he can begin to fill the huge gap left by Robbie, that can only be a good thing.

For the weekend, Coach Hartleb said:

“Defensively, we have a lot of guys playing new positions, and they’re going to have to settle in as we go,” Hartleb said. “As far as the pitching goes, we have to limit the number of guys we put on base. It’s disappointing that we gave so many free passes with the big lead we had.”

That’s true to the point of stating the obvious.  I’m sure he had more pointed observations to make in the locker room. 

Chin up, guys!  There’s a whole season ahead of you.

 

  

The University of Illinois baseball team took the field for the first time last night against the Stetson Hatters at the Stetson Invitational in Deland, Florida.  Unfortunately, the good guys took it on the chin losing 6-3 due to sloppy play in the field and wasted opportunities.

“It was our first time outside under the lights, but we should be able to catch routine fly balls,” Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said. “But still, I saw a lot of positives. We played very hard and we were very aggressive on the bases.”

The Hatters took advantage of consecutive errors to put together a 4-run inning which spelled defeat for the Illini. 

For those curious what the lineup of the Illini will look like this year, this is what they used last night:

1. Joe Bonadonna cf
2. Ryan Hastings 2b
3. Mike Rohde 3b
4. Chase Kliment dh
5. Dave Schultz 1b
6. Shawn Roof ss
7. Trevor Huisinga
8. Ryan Snowden lf
9. Aaron Ifft c

Baseball Weekly polls have put the Illini finishing seventh in the Big Ten this year.  That seems a bit harsh since they were the 2005 conference champions.  But consider that the majority of their starters from their championship team have moved on.  Only Rohde, Roof, and Huisinga remain.  They have lost a few of their quality starters, too.

In addition, Itch Jones has retired and rookie coach Dan Hartleb has taken over.  There has to be some transition period.

Good luck to the Illini this season!  Looking forward to seeing some home games at Illinois Field when the weather warms up (first home game is March 31 against Purdue).

This past weekend, the University of Illinois baseball program took some time to honor recently retired coach Richard “Itch” Jones as well as the 2005 Illinois Big Ten Championship team. 

About 200 people were in attendance for the program which included video clips of Jones’ tenure at Illinois.  After the reception, the 2005 team was honored during a timeout during the Illinois-Purdue basketball game.

The Illinois 2006 baseball season begins on February 24.

Yes, it’s January but it’s time to start thinking about college baseball.  Illini baseball, to be more specific.  Their first game is exactly one month away when they take part in the Stetson Invitational in Deland, Florida on the weekend of February 24-26. 

Their first home game is March 31 (when the weather is substantially warmer here in Illinois).  That is part of a four-game set against Purdue on March 31-April 2.

Here are the eight rooks signed by new coach Dan Hartleb. 

2006 University of Illinois Baseball Schedule 

University of Illinois Baseball Roster