The Illini did it again. They beat top-ranked Louisiana State today, 6-2. Ben Reeser fans nine Tigers in 8.2 innings of work. The Illini righthander gave up six hits, four walks and the two earned runs to post the win. Nick Chmielewski came out the bullpen to record the final out. Yes, boys and girls, the Illini can pitch. Apparently, with nearly anyone in the nation.
Aaron Johnson had three hits and Casey McMurray had two hits and two RBI to lead the offense.
Illinois should not only be the talk of the conference, but a subject of every college baseball resource in the country. Two of three in Baton Rouge? It's got to be the story of the weekend.
In other news, Indiana's losing skid came to halt Sunday. The Hoosiers beat LeMoyne, 8-3. Freshman Blake Monar goes seven innings yielding four hits, three walks and one earned run. Monar also struck out six. All-American Josh Phegley homered and drove in three runs. Jerrud Sabourin went 4 for 5.
Bethune-Cookman beat Michigan State, 5-4. Eli Boike hit his second homer of the weekend amongst his two hits. Boike also collected two RBI and stole a base. Johnny Lee also cranked out a homer amongst his two hits. Alejandro Sanchez had two hits and two RBI for B-C.
Remember that Northwestern at Kansas game that got postponned yesterday? Well, the two sides did manage to complete that game on Sunday. The Jayhawks emerged victorious, 10-1. NU collected only three hits off five KU pitchers. Hamilton Wise had two of them. KU hit that many homers. The second game has been cancelled.
(# 25) Ohio State beat Central Michigan, 16-7. OSU's Michael Stephens and Matt Streng both homered and drove in three runs. Cory Kovanda went 4 for 6 while Dan Burkhart and Michael Arp both went 3 for 6. The Chips' Sam Russell had four RBI.
Texas State dropped Purdue, 14-10. Dan Black went deep twice and had five RBI. Alas, TSU's Paul Goldschmidt did exactly the same thing.
Penn State thumped Lehigh, 15-5. I've got nothing but a final score to share. Hey, at least it's a W to report. The Nittany Lions are scheduled to take on St. Joseph's right about now.
As for the games in-progress, Austin Peay is up on Iowa, 17-9, in the eighth. Wes Freie, Kevin Hoef and T.J. Cataldo have all gone yard for the Hawkeyes. Frosh Chet Zeise is 3 for 4. APSU has also belted three homers. Jared DeLong has one of them and four RBI.
Minnesota and South Dakota State are tied at 1-1 in the fifth.
9:12pm Update
Austin Peay finished off Iowa, 20-9. Penn State beat St. Joseph's, 8-7. Minnesota dropped SDSU, 7-2.
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3 comments:
Hello Big-10ers,
Here is a link to my recap of the final KU - Northwestern game as well as some observations on the weekend as a whole.
There were more than a few Northwestern fans at the park this weekend and they were all of the good sort. Best of luck to the Wildcats this season. The team has weak spots but there are some strengths from which to build. Whenever you guys are ready to send down Michigan just let us know! Or Illinois, they must be feeling pretty full of their road invincibility right about now.
http://www.rockchalktalk.com/2009/3/8/785963/kansas-completes-sweep-of
I was going to post about Friday's win, mentioning the idea that many have articulated before: that Northern baseball has much of the same first team talent but the Southern teams have greater depth which allows them to dominate.
But as Illinois managed to get two wins over the weekend, I've decided to scrap those plans. :-) Quite a series. Maybe LSU took a nonconference home series lightly, maybe their coach looked at it as a way to try out new lineups or new players, but I'll take it either way. I think you could have gotten long odds on Illinois winning even one game, much less taking the series.
Now the question is: can Park Ridge give out BT POY honors to an Illini two weeks in a row? :-)
Brian,
As an Illini fan, can I say I immensely enjoyed this post? :)
-T
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