Illinois just came away with a 1-2 weekend against Western Kentucky University. Without being snide, they did win a game. WKU have a tough team and Illinois came off a pretty rough weekend down in DeLand, Florida.
Saturday’s win came at the hands of the John Anderson / Chris Pack combination which has worked relatively well this season to say the least. Those two who have pitched on every Saturday so far this year are responsible for three of Illini’s four wins. This time it was Anderson who picked up the win in Illinois’ 9-5 victory on Saturday. Pack pitched three innings and while it doesn’t look like it was pretty (he gave up three runs on two hits and two walks), he got the save.
Another bonus for Saturday… Illinois showed some signs of power. Both Adam Davis and Josh Parr hit dingers both their first of their year. Davis had 4 ribbies to go along with his tater.
On Friday, Kevin Johnson was once again the victim of no offensive support. He pitched well giving up just three runs in seven innings but unfortunately the Illinois bats were quiet. Illinois only scored once in the ninth on a Josh Parr sac fly preventing a Hilltopper shutout. WKU won 3-1.
Sunday’s game was a bit of a roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, the coaster ended up pulling into the Hilltopper station when all was said and done. WKU got off to a 6-1 lead before Illinois got into gear. Three unanswered Illini runs made it 7-5 until WKU scored three runs in an inning twice making the final score 13-5. Getting on base was not the issue for Illinois in that game. They had 11 hits and walked four times. Unfortunately, getting them home was. Illinois brought in six relievers in Sunday’s contest.
Random Ramblings
I was out of town this weekend and primarily out and about so instead of following the games’ Live Stats on a full screen of a computer, I was reduced to watching it on my Android smart phone which actually worked ok but I wouldn’t recommend it. Lots of squinting and resizing of the resizing of the screens.
Next up
Believe it or not, the next game is in Illinois. Maybe not Illinois Field but it’s in our fair state. On Thursday, Illinois will begin a four game stint in southern Illinois. The first game will take place at Rent One Park in Marion, Illinois against Northern Illinois. One day later they will play the same team in Carbondale. Also on the schedule this weekend in Carbondale are St Louis University and host Southern Illinois.