Illinois took their second straight Big Ten series as they defeated the Northwestern Wildcats two games to one at Evanston.
Illinois lost Friday night’s affair 9-2 but it seemed they were ready for revenge Saturday as they scored four runs in first inning. That’s all they would need as John Anderson (left) pitched his third complete game in a row and led the Illini to victory 6-3. Anderson didn’t give up a walk and two of those three runs were unearned. Brandon Hohl, Matt Dittman, Pete Cappetta and Casey McMurray all had multi-hit games on Saturday.
The rubber game on Sunday pretty much started out same way… with Illinois going out ahead. They scored five in the first two innings and added three more in the fourth all before the Wildcats had a chance to get a run across the plate. While NU did make a small effort toward the end of the game by scoring four runs in the last three innings, it was too little, too late for the Wildcats.
It looks like Corey Kimes put out a fine effort on Sunday. He spread out seven hits and four walks in seven innings allowing the Wildcats to score only twice.
Pete Cappetta, playing second base on Sunday, had a fine day at plate. He got four hits one of which was his first homerun of the year. For the game, he drove in three runs.
Cappetta (left) was rewarded for his efforts this weekend. The conference honored him as the Big Ten Co-Player of the Week. For the weekend, Pete was 8 for 12 with five runs scored. This was the second week in a row an Illini player was so honored as Willie Argo got the award last week.
Congrats Pete!
Random Ramblings
It’s amazing how different the Big Ten standings look after just one weekend. Last weekend, just one game separated the top eight teams. Not so any more with leaders Purdue and Michigan State at 10-5 and sixth place Penn State at 7-8. As for Illinois, we’re at 8-7 which puts us at a tie for fourth place with Minnesota.
Don’t forget we have Ohio State coming up this weekend. I don’t need to look at the standings… the Buckeyes are always tough in any year. But we’re playing them at home this year, we have that going for us. An extra bonus, Friday night will probably be the most attended game all year with the Bleacher Bum BBQ promotion. So tell your friends and get out to the park this weekend and support the team!
Tomorrow’s game against Southern Illinois at Rent One Park will be the third time Illinois will play them this year. It is also the last scheduled midweek game of the 2011 season. [correction: we have one game against Illinois College tomorrow (5/4) at 6:05pm. Was that a late addition? I didn’t see it.]