We play two 2010 repeats this week. One team that we lost to and one that we beat (and not that long ago either)…
Here are quick sum-ups:
Illinois State Redbirds |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 20, 2010 | 6:05 pm ct | |||
| Illinois Field | Champaign, IL | |||
| Program website link | Record | 18-15 (Missouri Valley 8-1) | ||
| Head Coach: | Mark Kingston | Key player: | Kevin Tokarski | |
Illinois State continues to play well since they defeated us March 30. Not only do they have a 18-15 record but more importantly, their 8-1 record against the Missouri Valley Conference puts them in first place of the MVC.
Redbird infielder Kevin Tokarski is a major threat. He’s hitting .465 with 29 rbis and 43 runs scored. Not only that, his BB/K ratio (29/19) is pretty good too.
Eastern Illinois Panthers |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 21, 2010 | 6:30 pm ct | |||
| Grimes Field | Mattoon, IL | |||
| Program website link | Record | 9-25 (Ohio Valley 4-8) | ||
| Head Coach: | Jim Schmitz | Key player: | Zach Borenstein | |
Eastern Illinois still hasn’t won since we defeated them one week ago. They’re coming off a weekend when they were swept three games by Tennessee Tech.
Zach Borenstein remains the offensive threat on the squad. He leads all Panthers in hitting, homers and rbis.
Random Ramblings
Michigan CF Patrick Biondi had his way with Illinois pitching and it was good enough to get him Co-Big Ten Player of the Week honors. He hit .583 for the weekend including two 3-hit games.
It doesn’t stop there. Wolverine stopper Tyler Burgoon also won Big Ten Pitcher of the Week based on one win, two saves and eight innings of scoreless work.
Josh Lyons of Indiana was given the co-Big Ten Player of the Week as well.
Mark your calendars and pray for good weather. The 2nd Annual Bleacher Bum Barbeque is scheduled for April 30th and festivties are set start around 5pm. Illinois will be playing Northwestern that night and gametime is 6:05.
Admission is free and besides free food there will be plenty of fun things to do. Inflatable games for the kids, T-shirt giveaways and Olympic speed skater Katherine 
Reutter will be on hand.
Last year’s BBB was a lot of fun and was followed up by a heck of a game with a lot of fireworks (followed by the real ones, seen right) against the Buckeyes. I hope we get a big crowd for this one.
More details at fightingillini.com
Bleacher Bum Barbeque sounds like a totally awesome event. No lie.
yeah, it’s a blast. of course, it helped that afterwards, we came back to beat OSU last year. :)