The 2011 Illinois baseball team has completed their journey. With a 14-2 loss to Stanford, they have been eliminated from the NCAA Regionals. I won’t trivialize the situation with yesterday’s boxscores and stats (though I will say Davis Hendrickson really made a name for himself with the glove). You can look at them them yourself.
While it’s natural to feel a tinge of sadness with the ending of the Regionals run, I feel happy for these boys. Not only did they win the Big Ten title AND win the Big Ten Tournament, they did themselves and the Big Ten proud in the first round of the NCAA Regionals. They managed to last till the final game, eliminating two teams in the process. I’m especially proud that they managed to defeat the team that gave them their initial loss, Fullerton.
I’d wager that at the beginning of this season, very few outside of the players (and maybe the parents), had any clue that the 2011 Illinois baseball team was going to be THIS good. Once conference season got rollin’, we started to get the sense that there was something magical about this team because they were PLAYING as a team. No egos, no superstars just good baseball each weekend.
I could tell there was something different about the 2011 team just by watching the dugout during the game. The chattering, hootin’ and hollerin’. Each player was in the game even if they weren’t playing. This team cared.
I’ll miss the team of 2011 especially the seniors who will be leaving and most likely be successful at whatever life throws them. I’ll bet Coach Hartleb and the rest of the Illini coaching staff feel the same.
Congratulations to the University of Illinois Baseball team of 2011 for a job well done!!