Sadly, I didn’t make it out to the game on Sunday. Sad, only because it would have been nice to see another fantastic Illini victory. It was Mother’s Day, you see. Don’t blame my wife. She let’s me come out to every other ballgame and I’m grateful for that.
Looking at the box score, it appears like it was all Illinois as they defeated Ohio State 11-5 for the series. It was the third 2-1 weekend in a row for the Illini and puts them at 10-8 in the Big Ten. That puts them in a three way tie for third place with Ohio State and Purdue. Right now, Michigan State (13-5)and Minnesota (11-7) are the teams to beat.
Corey Kimes (right) pitched a great game on Sunday. Not to take anything away from anyone else but he was the only starter this weekend to get off relatively unscathed. Kimes pitched a full seven frames and allowed only five hits and three runs. Chris Pack got some more work in and finished the game off and while gave up two runs, none were earned.
As for the offense, where do you start? Six of the nine starters had multi-hit games and two (Justin Parr and Davis Hendrickson) hit safely 3 times. Willie Argo drove home four runs. Casey McMurray scored twice without even getting a hit.
According to the fightingillini.com recap, this weekend’s totals of 31 runs and 43 hits by the Illini offense were season’s highs.
Random Ramblings
It looks like former Illini hurler Phil Haig will be playing with (and against) some of our guys this summer. He’ll be joining the Rochester Honkers of the Northwest League.
Looking forward, keep in mind that the last series of the season will be a bit different schedule-wise. The Indiana home series will start on a Thursday (May 19th) and will continue till Saturday.
Next up
Right now, there are no midweek games on the schedule. That means we’re looking at Purdue this coming weekend at West Lafayette. Friday’s game time is 3:05pm.