Hard core big league fans look forward to when pitchers and catchers report to spring training. I guess the closest that college baseball has is when players begin full team practice… and that happened for the first time yesterday.
Players and coaches convened at the Irwin Indoor Practice Facility (complete with the identical Field Turf that is on Illinois Field) Friday to begin practice for 2011. At the Fighting Illini web site, you can watch a couple interviews… one of Coach Hartleb and the other of senior outfielder Casey McMurray during the practice.
A recurring theme of both interviews was that several upperclassmen players have been working out for a couple weeks ahead of schedule and also have taken the initiative to help organize workouts for the underclassmen who have arrived early.
You can view the interviews here at the Fighting Illini website. Here is the link to their photo gallery for Friday’s practice.