I’m finally coming down a bit from Sunday’s incredible comeback by the Illini over Michigan State. It’s not often you see a team come back from a 7-0 deficit to win 8-7 in a must-win game.
But I’m sure the Illini baseball team isn’t looking back… they’re looking forward. Forward to Wednesday at 11:05 (Central) when they take on Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
For the record, Iowa is 17-13 (31-21 overall) good for fourth place in the Big Ten. Head to head, Iowa had the advantage winning three of four at Iowa City.
Word has it that the players left Champaign-Urbana Monday at noon. Hopefully they will get some rest before tomorrow’s practice day. They deserve it.
Here is the Big Ten Tournament web site.
Closing out the regular season
A couple of things are worthy of note before going on to the Big Ten Tournament:
First, congrats to closer Jake Toohey who won Big Ten pitcher of the week. He recorded a save and a win in Illinois’ series against Michigan State. The win, of course, was Toohey’s 4 1/3 inning appearance on Sunday where he allowed no runs and allowed the Illini to come back and win the game.
Somewhat lost in the shuffle this weekend was the fact that Shawn Roof has broken Andy Small’s career HBP record for Illini. Roof had two over the weekend giving him 45.
Finally, catcher Lars Davis finished out the regular season hitting .415, second in the Big Ten. The thing is, his batting average only tells part of the story. Without him, the team wouldn’t have made the Tournament. Nicely done, Crash.
Tomorrow is a travel day for me. I’ll be getting into Ann Arbor around 11:30pm.
Go Illini!!