Starter John Anderson is on a roll. He’ll go for another win this weekend.
This weekend, the Illini will be traveling north this weekend to take on the Northwestern Wildcats.
Note that Friday’s game will be an early game at 3pm. Fire up Gametracker if you want to follow the game.
Northwestern Wildcats |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 29, 2011 | 3:00 pm ct | |||
| April 30, 2011 | 1:00 pm ct | |||
| May 1, 2011 | 1:00 pm ct | |||
| Rocky Miller Park | Evanston, IL | |||
| Program website link | Record | 13-23 (5-7 in the Big Ten) | ||
| Head Coach: | Paul Stevens | Key Player: | Paul Snieder (.368, 4 hr, 31 rbi) | |
Northwestern is not what I would call a Big Ten baseball powerhouse. They do occasionally have their years but this season they are quite in the middle of the pack with a 5-7 conference record.
Wildcat firstbaseman Paul Snieder is doing his best to keep the offense going. He leads the Wildcats in homers (4), hitting (.368) and rbis (31). Watch out for starter Luke Farrell, too. Last week, he was named Big Ten pitcher of the week. For the year, Farrell is 4-1 with a 3.25 ERA. Interesting stat though… he’s given up 27 runs in 54 innings (not a lot of defensive support, I suppose).
Random Ramblings
Again, I don’t make predictions much on this website but I will say this is a prime opportunity for our guys to make their move in the Big Ten standings. Absolutely no one is running away with it right now. I’ve seen some tight races in the Big Ten baseball race but nothing like this.
| Big Ten | Overall | |||
| Team | Record | Pct. | Record | Pct. |
| 1. Purdue | 7-5 | .583 | 27-13 | .675 |
| Penn State | 7-5 | .583 | 25-13 | .658 |
| Michigan State | 7-5 | .583 | 24-13 | .649 |
| 4. Indiana | 6-6 | .500 | 25-16 | .610 |
| Ohio State | 6-6 | .500 | 16-18 | .471 |
| Minnesota | 6-6 | .500 | 14-16 | .467 |
| Illinois | 6-6 | .500 | 15-21 | .417 |
| Michigan | 6-6 | .500 | 13-25 | .361 |
| 9. Northwestern | 5-7 | .417 | 13-23 | .361 |
| 10. Iowa | 4-8 | .333 | 15-23 | .395 |
and let me say this… that 2-1 series win against Michigan State was big. Even a 1-2 weekend would the Spartans at 8-4 and in first place all by themselves. And Illinois would be languishing in 8th place. Every win counts.
Let’s go Illini!