Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
I did an interview with former Illini shortstop Shawn Roof. I gleaned some questions from some of his Illini fans and ran them by him.
Roof has continued his success since leaving the Illini. This midseason, he advanced to Detroit’s AAA affiliate, the Toledo Mudhens. Once he got there, he caught fire hitting .354 for the rest of the year.
You can read the interview at my Illinois baseball blog, the Illinois Baseball Report.
Woo hoo! Former Illini shortstop and friend of the Zealot, Shawn Roof has hit his first pro homerun. It’s worth mentioning because the versatile infielder never hit one during his days as an Illini either.
Don’t expect another one soon because the Roof waited till the last game of the Erie Seawolves’ regular season for his first dramatic first.
Congrats, Shawn!
I always enjoy getting emails especially when they come from former Illini players. Shawn Roof updated me on his latest since he got promoted to the Tigers’ AA squad, the Erie Seawolves.
Roof is enjoying the slightly cooler weather in Erie, PA (compared to Single-A weather in Florida, at least). However, the biggest change is everyone is that much better at the higher level. "The defenses are unbelievable, and you really have to earn your hits." Pitchers are learning to work the counts better too, apparently. Roof says, "Unlike before if you’re ahead in the count you’ll see a fastball, but now you see more 2-0 curveballs, and 3-2 curveballs."
A big highlight for Roof recently was when the Seawolves got a chance to face big leaguer Fausto Carmona.
He had a pretty good sinker and induced a lot of ground ball outs, but he sure didn’t overpower us like I thought he would, so that was cool to see that you can hang in there against guys like that. I had a infield base hit off of him. I hit a chopper up the middle, and he jumped up and knocked it down but I beat it out.
Roof during his Illini days
Shawn Roof, who only last spring played shortstop for the Illini and then was drafted by the Tigers, has gotten a promotion. After playing the bulk of this summer for the Tiger’s A team, the Lakeland Flying Tigers, he’s going to Double-A ball.
He’s now playing for the AA Erie Seawolves.
“I came up here not knowing what to expect and just wanted to play defense well and try and do some things at the plate to help the team,” Roof said. “I’m moving runners and, luckily, a few balls have fallen in.”
Good luck, Shawn!
Joe Bonadonna made his one hit count Wednesday
A quick post before I head out for the second day of the Big Ten Tournament.
What’s on for today?
First up at 12:05 is Loser’s round game where we find out who gets to go on in the tournament and who gets to get on the bus. #5 seed Ohio State faces #6 seed Indiana.
At 3:35, Penn State who defeated Indiana yesterday afternoon, will take on #2 seed Purdue. Purdue is a tough team who have a formidable offense as Illinois found out last weekend.
Finally, at 7:05, host Michigan will take on Illinois who are fresh off their first round win.
A busy day for the Big Ten tournament for sure.
Which announcer will we get?
I’m not a picky guy but I have to say the PA announcer for the Illinois-Ohio State left something to be desired. Between announcing the wrong defense at the beginning of the game and announcing players out of order it got a little nuts.
But when he referred to our team as the ‘Fighting Irish’, that was it. I think the crowd cheered a little extra louder when it was time for the stadium’s “Junior Announcer” promo when a lucky 10-year-old announced the players. He got the players right.
It didn’t go unnoticed when Penn State-Indiana played, they got a new announcer.
Congrats and Encouragement from an Alum
I just got an email from former Illinois SS Shawn Roof this morning. Roof is currently playing for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in the Gulf Coast League. He’s enjoying the updates and photos. He passes on congrats and greetings to everyone.
Apparently his roommate at Lakeland is a Michigan grad so there’s some trash talking going on between the two.
All for now, I stepped outside and though it is a bit overcast, it did stop raining and forecast for the day looks good.
Go Illini!
That is a smile of a proud father. Russell Bonadonna (above) is holding the homerun ball hit by his son, Joe during Wednesday’s action at the Big Ten Tournament. Bonadonna’s homer proved to be the game-winner in the win against Ohio State in the first round of the tournament. Illinois won 3-2.
Tied 2-2, Bonadonna hit a solo homer to left in the seventh inning off of Buckeye reliever Dean Wolosiansky. The score stood and Illinois won.
Kevin Manson: CG, 0 ER
But I can’t write any more without talking about Kevin Manson. Why? He simply dominated the Buckeyes today. He began the game by striking out the first two Buckeyes. Then he got better. No earned runs, only 4 hits, no walks. Manson rose to the occasion.
In some ways, it was a typical Illinois game. We outhit them 11 to 4 but won 3-2.
Steal #40
Kyle Hudson walked in the first inning and you knew what was coming next. Steal #40. That steal tied Shawn Roof for the single season team record. Hud later scored on a sac fly.
Illinois also scored when Brandon Wikoff doubled in the 3rd inning and Daniel Webb singled to drive him home.
Tomorrow, Illinois face #1 seed Michigan in a night game.
I’ve created a separate album in the photo gallery for the Big Ten Tournament. You can access it here. I will have separate sub-albums for each game.
Penn State defeated Indiana 6-1 in the second game of the day. If anyone is interested, I took photos of that game, too.
Finally, this week I’ll be doing daily updates on the Tournament on Brian Foley’s The College Baseball Blog. Thanks to Brian for the opportunity.
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!
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Games #47-50 |
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Record: 28-18 Big Ten 14-10 |
vs Ohio State |
at Bill Davis Stadium, Columbus, Ohio |
It’s getting close to crunch time. Two more series left for the Illini this regular season; one against the team directly behind them and one directly ahead of them.
This weekend, it’s the Buckeyes who are in fourth place in the Big Ten and 2 1/2 games behind Illinois.
Interestingly, the Ohio State’s web site notes that “The two teams did not meet last year”. Weird, I remember seeing our guys split with the Buckeyes in ’07. Shawn Roof probably remembers that too. He was hit by the pitcher four times, a Big Ten record.
Take the chance to check out The Buckeye Nine’s review on the series.
Awardy Stuff
Ryan Hastings and Daniel Webb have been named to ESPN Magazine’s Academic All-District 5 first team. Hastings holds a perfect 4.0 GPA in the sport management graduate program. Webb has a 3.2 GPA in community health.
Congrats to both!
BTW, don’t forget to vote for Ryan for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award!
Finally, the lowdown on Ohio State:
| Opponent: | Ohio State University |
| Nickname: | Buckeyes |
| Conference: | Big Ten |
| Head Coach: | Bob Todd (21st year) |
| Hometown: | Columbus, OH |
| Current Record: | 25-21 (11-12 Big Ten) |
| Baseball Program website: | Link |
| Players to watch: | JB Shuck. He’s a pitcher, outfielder, just about whatever Ohio St needs. Shuck is hitting .400 with 35 runs scored. He’s also 4-3 with a team leading 65 Ks. |
| Team Fact: | Ohio State has been out-homered 2-1 by their opponents but still outscores them 258-224 |
Go Illini!!
Anyone who knows me that I’ve followed Shawn Roof since he and I met during his Illinois days. It seems so long ago but it was only a year ago when he entered his senior year as Illinois shortstop.
Since then, he was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 2007 draft and entered their minor league system. Now he’s down in Lakeland, Florida in the Tigers camp.
Shawn took some time for an interview for Baseball Zealot Radio. He talks about life in the minors, his daily routine in spring training and even talked a bit about his alum, the University of Illinois and their chances for 2008.
Time: 16:33
Date Recorded: 3/6/08
 Listen to Episode 42 |
 Listen to the show via iTunes! |
| Listen to other Baseball Zealot Radio episodes |  BZR Podcast Feed |
Tedd Mallasch (aka Teddy Ballgame) is down in Florida and enjoying some Grapefruit League action. He called up to give us an update on what’s happening down there.
If you haven’t already, read some of Teddy’s articles he written from Florida. He’s posted to the blog pretty much daily since he went down there.
As always, it was a pleasure to talk to Teddy. Hopefully, it won’t be the last time as he is headed to Arizona to see some Cactus League games later this month.
Enjoy!
| Download Episode 41 |
Listen to the show via iTunes! |
| Listen to other Baseball Zealot Radio episodes | BZR Podcast Feed |
