Illinois ended their home season with a win tonight against Western Michigan. Thanks to key pitching and a great game by Pete Cappetta, the Illini outscored the Broncos 6-1.
Billy Barrett held the Broncos hitless for three innings
The Broncos just couldn’t get the offense going against Illinois’ hurlers. Through six innings against Billy Barrett, Tanner Libby and Corey Kimes, they could only muster one hit. It wasn’t until the seventh did WMU coordinate their attack to score one run. Billy Barrett got the win, his second of the season.
Cappetta hits one out in the second inning
Illinois, on the other hand, scored six runs and Pete Cappetta had a lot to do with it. The Illini drew first blood on Cappetta’s 2-run homerun in the 2nd. In a wild 4th inning which included, a wild pitch, hit-by-pitch and an error, Illinois scored two more thanks to an rbi single by Brandon Hohl and another single by Josh Parr.
Cappetta wasn’t done yet. After Casey McMurray was called back to third after Aaron Johnson was called out for obstruction at second base on the previous play. Pete lined a single to left scoring McMurray.
For the day, Cappetta was 2 for 4 with 3 rbis and a homerun and a stolen base. Craig Lutes who had two hits on the day, stole two bases in his last home game as an Illini.
No pressure, Willie Argo but you didn’t get a stolen base today (0 for 5). Just relax. You’ll do it against the Hoosiers.
More photos here in the photo gallery.
Next game is the Indiana series. Note that the first game is on Thursday.
Lutes video
If you haven’t seen it, here is a link to the news story that Channel 15 did on Craig and Katie Lutes and the Illini baseball/softball connection.
I’ll end today with my favorite photo of Pete Cappetta I took today…
I think it’s one of my favorites of this season.