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Games #50-53

~~Thur May 15 6:05pm~~
Fri May 16 3:00 (DH)
Sat May 17 4:00pm (DH)

Record: 29-20

Big Ten 15-12

vs Purdue

at Illinois Field Champaign, IL

Ok, Illini Fans, this is it. Our magic number is down to two. The Purdue Boilermakers are coming to town and the Illini need all fans to come to the park. Don’t forget that the schedule is a bit different this weekend. It will be a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series.

Purdue has already clinched their Big Ten Tournament spot. It would take a four-game sweep for us to overtake their second place position and thereby gaining a bye in the first round. I honestly don’t know what would happen if we tied them by going 3-1.

[Update: I inquired about this of the one person who I knew would know, Brian DeCaussin of Big Ten Hardball. His reply:

I believe that if the Illini take three of four from Purdue, they would be the second seed by virtue of their head-to-head record against the Boilermakers. That would give them the first-round bye.

So nothing official but that seems to makes sense to me.]

Media Coverage

If you have the Big Ten Network and can’t make to the ballpark, all three games will be broadcast. This should make my buddy Brando happy who’s always asking why he can’t watch Illini (or any Big Ten baseball, for that matter) on BTN.

More Altobelli?

I didn’t even notice last weekend that Dom Altobelli suited up and pinch hit in two games against Ohio State. Dom had been out since April with a torn labrum. His replacement at third base, John Schlichter, has been doing a bang-up job in his stead but it’s good to see him getting his swings in.

Can we get some good weather?

According to Illini’s official website, six of the seven Big Ten series have been affected by the weather what with cancellations or postponements. It would be nice to have a 3-day series of sunny baseball weather to watch the games.

Checking the weather forecast, looks like a chance of rain on Thursday but clear on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully, the rains will hold off on Thursday night.

[Update: Thursday’s game was postponed. I updated the schedule above.]

Comeback Mountain

An amazing 14 of Illinois’ 29 wins this season have been comeback victories. Five of those wins happened in the last at-bat.

See you at the ballpark!!!

And the dirt on Purdue:

Opponent:	Purdue University
Nickname:	Boilermakers
Conference:	Big Ten
Head Coach:	Doug Schreiber (9th year)
Hometown:	West Lafayette, IN
Current Record:	27-22 (18-9 Big Ten)
Baseball Program website:	Link
Players to watch:	Catcher Dan Black is their long ball guy. He leads Purdue with 12 homers and 51 rbis. Bonus: He’s played for the local Danville Dans.
Team Fact:	Purdue’s ERA is a full point less than their opponents (4.59 to 5.67).

One series left in regular Big Ten play

No game on Sunday between Illinois and Ohio State. Rain washed away any chance of the Illini to tie Ohio State for the weekend. As frustrating as that probably is, Ohio State had the momentum after their amazing comeback in Game 2 on Saturday (they scored 10 runs in the bottom of the fifth after the Illini scored 7 in the top). Maybe it’s just as well?

A Look at the Standings

Let’s take a look at the Big 10 standings with just one weekend left.

Team	W	L	T	Pct.	W	L	T	Pct.
Michigan	23	4	0	.852	38	11	0	.776
Purdue	18	9	0	.667	27	22	0	.551
Illinois	15	12	0	.556	29	20	0	.592
Penn State	15	13	0	.536	24	27	0	.471
Ohio State	13	13	0	.500	27	22	0	.551
Northwestern	13	15	0	.464	20	25	0	.444
Michigan State	12	14	0	.462	24	24	0	.500
Indiana	11	17	0	.393	23	28	0	.451
Minnesota	8	19	0	.296	18	33	0	.353
Iowa	8	20	0	.286	20	31	0	.392

Illinois maintains its third place spot (just barely) only one-half game ahead of Penn State and 1 1/2 ahead of Ohio State. They will need a sweep of Purdue this weekend to take over second place and get the bye in the tournament.

Michigan has now clinched the home berth for the tourney making things easy for those who make travel arrangements, I’m sure.

It will be a tight race between Northwestern, Indiana and Michigan State for the last two spots. Michigan State was knocked out of the tourney qualification in the last regular season game by Illinois last year. I’ll bet MSU will do everything in their power to see that doesn’t happen again.

On thing that might help the Spartans… Northwestern’s schedule. They have the pleasure (?) of playing Michigan this weekend.

All this said, it’s anyone’s game (except sadly for their fans, Indiana, Minnesota, and Iowa; they’re mathematically eliminated). On the other hand, Purdue and Michigan fans can rest easy, their teams are in it.

Some Big Ten Leaders

Right now, Illinois has 3 hitters in the top ten in batting average in the Big Ten. That would be Kyle Hudson (.409), Daniel Webb (.404) and Brandon Wikoff (.397). Hudson also leads the conference in on-base percentage (.515), and runs scored (57). Wikoff is fourth in rbis with 56.

Big Ten leaderboard

Illini finish Friday’s business then Buckeyes reign

On Saturday, Illinois and Ohio State completed their Friday contest that was suspended by rain. Illinois won easily with both teams scoring two additional runs. Final Score 9-4 Illinois.

The win goes to Kevin Manson which makes him 7-1 on the season. Mike Sterk got his third save of the year.

Once things got on to the regularly scheduled program, things sort of fell apart for the Illini.

We could only muster six hits and two runs against starter Dan DeLucia and reliever Eric Best. Meantime, the Buckeyes scored nine runs against us. Ohio State went for the big innings, clustering three runs in the first and six in the sixth inning.

Then came the second game:

Score by Innings                     R  H  E
--------------------------------------------
Illinois............ 001 07   0 0 -  8  8  3
Ohio State.......... 003 0(10)1 X - 14 16  1

Above is the score by innings for the second game of the doubleheader. I’ll give you three guesses which was was the key inning of the game. I’ll bet you won’t need all three.

I was on Cloud Nine after the top of the fifth when the Illini scored seven to make it 8-3 and seemingly clinched the victory. I was watching on Gametracker and when Mike Stankiewicz was replaced by Ben Reeser after Stanky loaded the bases with two hits and a walk, GT seemed to hang. Either it was a long warmup by Reeser or Gametracker was choking on all the runs the Buckeyes were scoring.

Talk about clustering runs. ugh.

For what it’s worth, three ribbies for Joe Bonadonna.

The last game of the series is this afternoon at 12:05pm.

Go Illini!!

A look at last year’s series

In my preview post for this series, I referenced a game in last year’s series against Ohio State when former Illini SS Shawn Roof was hit four times, a Big Ten record. I shot Shawn an email just asked him about it, asking him about it.

He writes:

About last year, yeah that was funny when I got hit 4 times. I vaguely remember as well, but I remember the last 2 were curveballs in the dirt that barely hit my toe. I doubt there was any bad blood, it was probably just because I stood on top of the plate so much, and most teams tried to pitch me in due to me going to right a lot. I was actually pretty glad they did because I think one at bat I was down 0-2 and the other I was down 1-2, and it gave me a chance to get on base.

Shawn DID break the Big Ten record for HBP so I guess it’s not too surprising.

Shawn is currently batting .327 for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a Tigers Advanced A ball team in Florida. He also wrote that the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez is currently on rehab in Tampa so his team is looking forward to facing him.

Good luck to Shawn!

Illini’s Aaron Johnson wins it in the 9th; Wikoff honored with Player of the Week Award

Dang, I’m out of town for a game and boy, it sure sounds like it was an exciting one. Northwestern had the Illini down by a run in the bottom of the ninth when catcher and cleanup hitter Aaron Johnson jacks a two-run shot to win it all 10-9. Wow!

It’s getting sufficiently close to the end of the regular season that I’m watching the Big Ten standings after every game. At this point, Illinois is third and is ever so slightly pulling away from the middle pack. They are 2 1/2 games up on fourth place Ohio State.

That said, it’s anyone’s ballgame when it comes to Big Ten Tournament qualification. I think we can safely dismiss Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota (Indiana’s conference record is 9-15). Michigan State, however, has made a late season push and at 10-13 could be a sleeper in the tournament race.

Speaking of Ohio State, Illinois makes the trip to Columbus this weekend. As I mentioned, the Buckeyes are in fourth but don’t let that fool you. They are always tough.

Wikoff takes Big Ten Player of the Week award

When Illini shortstop Brandon Wikoff (right) went 5 for 5 with 6 rbis on Saturday, I wondered to myself if he might be on his way to his own Big Ten Player of the Week award. Sure enough, for the third week in a row, an Illini player was honored with the award. For the weekend, Wikoff batted .588 with three multi-hit games.

This was the first time since 2003 that a Big Ten school has won the award three weeks in a row. Joe Bonadonna won it two weeks ago and Casey McMurray was honored last week.

What do Bonadonna, McMurray, and Wikoff have in common besides being an integral part of the Illinois lineup???

They are all listed as being 5’8″

Illini split with Northwestern

Joe Bonadonna’s always in a hurry

Illinois split a doubleheader with Northwestern Saturday losing a squeaker 4-3 then in the second game, crushing the Wildcats 11-5 behind a pair of career-first homers by Kyle Hudson and John Schlichter.

The kids and I got to the park just as fans were spilling of the stands after the first game. I asked people on the sidewalk what the outcome was and was informed that we lost. I asked some more people but unfortunately they said the same thing.

We got into the park and I saw Mike Sterk’s mom, Joyce aka “The StatLady”. I call her that because she keeps a mean scorecard. Detailed down to the backwards “K” for strikeout looking. Even I don’t that.

Anyway, I said I heard we lost and wondered what happened. “Well, Mike gave up a homerun”, she said.

Oops.

She was really nice though and showed me the scorecard for the game and as tempting as it might be, one person can’t always be responsible for a loss just as they aren’t always be responsible for a win.

Hudson swiping #35 of the year

Game Two went a whole lot better. Illinois had two homers from Kyle Hudson and John Schlichter. Amazingly, they were career firsts for both players. Schlichter was 2 for 3 with 4 rbis and Hudson was 3 for 4 with 3 rbis and 2 runs and a stolen base.

Schlichter hit his first career homer in the second game

Schlichter’s homer was part of a 5 run rally in the 5th inning which pretty much put the game out of reach at 9-2, though the Wildcats did plate three more runs.

QB Starter Phil Haig was on the mound for the Illini in game two and pitched his best game yet. He lasted 6 innings and gave up a run.

I ran into Ryan Hastings’ father Brian and mentioned the nice two-page feature article the News-Gazette did on Ryan. I asked how Ryan was doing. Brian says he thinks Ryan has had a solid season but he’s waiting for him to break out into a hot streak. I told him that a hot streak against Ohio State or Purdue would be perfect.

One last thing, kudos to my 8-year old daughter Olivia who has come with me to the last 5 home games (‘cepting game one today). She’s a real trooper and is now beginning to learn the players’ names and such by reading the baseball cards they hand out. Oh, Joe Bonadonna, you have a new number one fan now. She digs your at bat music.

I’ll be out of town Monday so I’ll unfortunately miss the last Illinois-Northwestern game. Cheer extra hard for me!

More photos (a lot more) here.

Go Illini!

One more thing… if you haven’t already, vote for Ryan Hastings for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award.

Illini go a-hunting Wildcats; Win 14-4

Brandon Wikoff tips helmets with Kyle Hudson as on-deck Aaron Johnson watches on

Illinois defeated Northwestern Saturday 14-4. Brandon Wikoff was the big producer going 5 for 5 for 5 with 2 doubles, a homer, six rbis, and four runs. Yes, that’s right… he was one base away from a cycle. I was standing next to Brandon’s dad when he got the second double to deep center. He was REALLY hoping for that triple, I could tell. Cycle or no, awesome day by Brandon.

Illinois starter Kevin Manson won the game, improving his record to 6-1.

Here is the game in pictures.

Starter Kevin Manson is third in the Big Ten in wins with 6.

We got there in time to see Brandon Wikoff hit his homerun. His 6 rbis puts him 3rd in the Big Ten with 51 for the season.

Bonadonna on first base…	and there…
he…	goes!!

The next time up, Wikoff got a little chin music…

…but he battled back for a single to right.

A lot more photos at the Photo Gallery. I’ll be there for most of the doubleheader today.

Important: Don’t forget… vote for Ryan Hastings for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award. Fan voting counts toward 25% of the voting.

Here’s Ryan’s bio on the Award web site. Good luck, Ryan!!!

Illinois gets some pitching… but lose to SIU

Brandon Wikoff laying down a bunt

College baseball is a strange beast. After a weekend against a Big Ten rival where we score 49 runs and give up 43 runs, they take on Southern Illinois and pitch their hearts out. After a rough 3 innings giving up two runs, Illinois relievers were stingy and allowed only 2 hits and no earned runs for eight innings in an extra innings affair. Alas, the one unearned run that was given up was the game breaker. Southern Illinois went away winners 3-2.

Mike Sterk, who gave up one hit and just the one unearned run in two innings, was the hard luck loser.

Tuesday’s Starter Nick Chmielewski

There was controversy from the very start when the second SIU batter was awarded first base after being hit. A lot of us didn’t see it including Coach Hartleb. He came out and discussed it with the ump. The batter was called back and showed his the part of his batting glove where he says it hit him. The ump was satisfied so play continued.

Joe Bonadonna and Aaron Johnson continue their hot streaks. Both had two hits for the night.

Dom Altobelli and Kyle Hudson are both nursing injuries

Kyle Hudson pulled a fast one on us. He wasn’t suited up for pre-game wearing sweats so I didn’t expect him to play and instead to rest that ankle. Somewhere around the second or third inning, I saw him return the dugout with regulation pants (still wearing the sweatshirt so I wasn’t sure). Sure enough, Hudson came on to pinch hit for John Schlichter in the bottom of the 11th. Unfortunately for us, he struck out.

It was my pleasure to finally meet (in person) Eric Loy. I stopped by the media booth before the game and introduced myself. I am occasionally a guest on his Sports Nite show on Fridays on WDWS 1400AM.

More photos are here.

This weekend: Northwestern at home. Come out to the ballpark!

Illinois Baseball retains third place

Thoughts on the Penn St series etc:

Boy, that was a rough and wild ride. A total of 92 runs were scored by both teams for the four games. A total of 49 were scored by the Illini. The funny thing is that they did with only two homeruns (Hastings and Cappetta).

But the important thing is we came out of it with at least a split and the Illini maintained their third place spot in the Big Ten, precarious as that might be. After Michigan and Purdue, one game separates four teams right now.

Casey McMurray came out the series with his first Big Ten Co-Player of the Week award.

Even after missing a couple games last week, Kyle Hudson is tied for second nationally in stolen bases and only one behind the top spot.

To say nothing of their hitting. Their stats speak for themselves. Keep it up, guys!

And on we go!

Next Game:

Game #42

Tues 4/29 6:05pm

Record: 25-16

11-9 Big Ten

vs Southern Illinois University

at Illinois Field, Champaign, IL

Assuming the rains don’t chase us away, we’ll be taking on the Salukis of Southern Illinois on Tuesday. If I’m not mistaken, this is the only time that we play the same team on separate occasions. Illinois took them on at their place on April Fool’s Day and won 5-2.

Opponent:	Southern Illinois University
Nickname:	Salukis
Conference:	Missouri Valley Conference
Head Coach:	Dan Callahan (14th year)
Hometown:	Carbondale, IL
Current Record:	23-18 (6-9 MVC)
Baseball Program website:	Link
Players to watch:	C Mark Kelly leads the team with a .331 average, 35 rbis and 29 runs. Tyler Bullock is hitting only .232 but leads the team with 6 homers.
Team Fact:	SIU has outpitched their opponents with a 4.56 ERA (compared to their opponents’ 4.79 ERA).

Illini take Sunday’s game against Penn St to split

Illinois got their revenge for yesterday’s sweep and evened the weekend series up by blasting the Penn State Nittany Lions 17-6. Casey McMurray continued to put up the big numbers as he went 4 for 4 with 3 runs. Kyle Hudson (right) was 3 for 4 with 3 runs and 2 rbis.

For the weekend, McMurray was 11 for 15 with five rbis and seven runs.

Today, the big inning no doubt was the Illini 4th. They batted around in the order and put together six hits plus a Lion error to score eight runs.

As for starter Billy Barrett, he was unhittable the first four innings. Literally. With two outs in the fifth, Barrett (left) had yet to give up a hit. Once Rick Marlin hit a double to center, the floodgates opened. Barrett walked two batters then a single by Wes Borden scored two.

The next inning, it was beginning to feel like yesterday all over again. Fortunately, the Illini had a 12-2 cushion. Penn State “only” scored 4 runs with the help of Mike Stankiewicz who somehow got out of it with minimal damage all things considered. Fortunately, those would be the last runs Penn State would score this weekend.

Final Score: 17-6

My daughter and I sat in front of Mike Sterk’s mom today. I just knew she was a Illini mom from the way she cheered. When she passed on the answer to the trivia question announced over PA to my daughter, I introduced myself. Answer to today’s question: Ben Reeser is the only Illini player with a twin. The More You Know.

More photos from the game here.

Finishing Yesterday’s Business then the Slugfest continues… only it’s one-sided

Saturday, the Illini went 1-2. Not every day that’s going to happen.

My plan was to go the ballpark to see the Illini finish up Friday’s game with the Nittany Lions and play their regularly scheduled doubleheader and was pleasantly surprised to see my buddy Brando had shown up to root on the Illini. I was a bit late so he filled me in.

The Illini had made quick work of finishing up Friday’s game and even managed to score four runs to win 20-11. Daniel Webb wasn’t satisfied with four hits on Friday so he added one more to 5 for 6 (with 5 rbis). Final score 20-11.

(4/27 Update:) Freshman John Schlichter broke a Big Ten record for the Friday/Saturday game. His 3 triples are the most by a Big Ten batter in a conference game. (thanks to reader Joe Dirt… I missed this). He also managed 5 rbis.

And that was pretty much last good news of the day.

Illinois got off to a quick 1-0 lead when Kyle Hudson scored on a wild pitch in the first but that was squashed when PSU LF Scott Kelley hit a two-run homer over the right field wall. It was 4-1 when Cory Wine (remember Cory Wine from last night?) did the same thing in the fourth.

So with the score 4-1 in the top the fifth I had to go pick up my kids from the parking lot from my wife who was dropping them off. I found the car, got the kids, came back to where Brando and I were sitting, looked up at the scoreboard and… it was 10-1!!! What!!! I swear I was gone 5 minutes, eight minutes TOPS! Four singles, and homeruns by Cory Wine and Scott Kelley (again and again) will do much to alter the balance of reality.

Rough outing for Aaron Martin

Starter Aaron Martin suffered the brunt of the first five innings. Martin can be hot (he had a scoreless innings streak earlier this season. Then he has games like this. Things didn’t get a whole lot better when Wes Braun came in but the way Penn State was hitting today, I don’t know who could have stopped them.

One highlight… Freshman Pete Cappetta (left), who is our backup shortstop, hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. That was his first career homerun. It may not have seemed to have meant much but it did give Illini fans something to cheer about in game which there was not much to cheer about. Thanks Pete!

Illini Numbers

Pete Cappetta: 1 for 2, HR, 3 rbis

Aaron Martin: 5 IP, 12 H, 12 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (L)

Final Score: Penn State 16 Illinois 5

The second game pretty much got off to same start as the first with the Nits getting off to an 10-4 lead by the top of the 7th inning. The Illini did make it interesting by scoring three runs in the bottom of 7th on two singles and two Penn State errors. But it was not enough and Penn State won again 10-7.

Illini Numbers

Aaron Johnson: 3 for 3, 2B, 2 runs

Ryan Hastings: 3 for 4, HR, 2 runs, 2 rbis

Well, the Penn State team that has hit 20 homeruns all year going into this weekend has suddenly found their stroke and has hit seven in three games. Not only that, the team that was second to last in Big 10 in runs scored has shown they can score 37 runs in the same three games. Is it conference motivation? The ever prevailing Illinois Field wind?

I have photos from the first game on Saturday. By the way, I noticed when uploading these pictures that I now have over 1000 photos of University of Illinois baseball dating back to last year (and including the 2007 Big Ten Tournament). If you’re a fan, take a minute and browse through them.

Game 4 today at 12:05 today. Get out there and cheer the Illini!!