Finally, we get to see some Illinois baseball on Illinois soil… against other Illinois opponents. This weekend sees the University of Illinois baseball team in a four game set. They’ll play two games each against the tough Southern Illinois Salukis and the slumping Northern Illinois Huskies.
For the first time, Illinois comes into a weekend with a winning record. They are currently 7-6 winning three games of four last weekend at the Nike College Showcase including one off tough #18 Oregon (by the way, they fell two spots since then).
First year transfer Jordan Parr seems to be hot hitting hero so far. He’s leading the Illinois squad in hitting (.388), rbis (tied with Davis Hendrickson with 13), slugging (.571), hits (19), and total bases (28). Brother Justin Parr leads the team in runs scored with 13 along with Brandon Hohl.
Interesting that our patent phrase used to be “we’ll do ok if our pitching holds up”. Looking at our pitching now, it’s doing just fine. There’s John Kravetz, ‘nuff said. 
Kevin Johnson has put in two great performances in a row. His season ERA is 3.13. Plus Nick Chmielewski is making strides each week.
And the bullpen!! Luke Joyce (3.12 ERA in 4 games) and Ronnie Muck (shown right, 3.00 ERA in 5 games) plus a few appearances by four or five others have given us a tremendous relief staff.
Indeed that pitching is holding up just fine.
Breaking down the opponents this weekend:
Southern Illinois Salukis |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 16, 2012 | 2:30 pm CT | |||
| Abe Martin Field | Carbondale, IL | |||
| March 18, 2012 | 2:30 pm CT | |||
| Rent One Park | Marion, IL | |||
| Program website link | 2012 Record 11-5 | |||
| Head Coach: Ken Henderson | Key player: Chris Serritella (.424, 4 HR, 23 rbis) | |||
It’s been long time since Coach Hartleb donned the catcher’s gear for the Salukis then became an assistant and later, head coach. I’m sure it’s in the back of his mind when we play SIU though. And no matter how good or bad either team is in any given year, the competition is tough. That said, we played Southern three times last year and they managed to shut us out twice. We’re due for some makeup offense.
This year, SIU is off to a great start in the Missouri Valley Conference. Currently with a 11-5 record, they stand at third place just one game back of first place Indiana State. A healthy Chris Serritella has a lot to do with that. The firstbaseman is hitting a team best .424 and also leading the MVC with 23 rbis.
Northern Illinois Huskies |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 17, 2012 | 11:00 am CT | |||
| Abe Martin Field | Carbondale, IL | |||
| March 18, 2012 | 11:00 pm CT | |||
| Rent One Park | Marion, IL | |||
| Program website link | 2012 Record 2-14 | |||
| Head Coach: Ed Mathey | Key player: Jamison Wells (10-10 steals-atts, 8 runs) | |||
At 2-14, Northern Illinois seems to be the polar opposite of SIU (forgive the awful pun, I couldn’t resist). Indeed, not much is going right for the Huskies in 2012. A week ago, they did manage to win two in a row at the Riverview Inn Challenge in Clarksville, TN. Since then, they were swept by St Louis.
The Huskies have been outhit .322 to .246, out homered 12 to 8 and outpitched 3.15 ERA to 7.30.
THAT SAID, teams like these are dangerous. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, they play with heart. I know Coach Hartleb teaches the Illini players to take every game seriously. There’s a good reason for that.
How to follow the games this weekend
More video goodness this weekend. The siusalukis.com website will be providing video for at least the SIU games. There’s more info here and the direct link to their Game Central is here.
And as usual, there will be a Live Blog (I think) and GameTracker will be up and running for those who want to follow the games in that fashion. Those links will be available near game time on the fightingillini.com website.
In other news…
Kudos to the baseball program for raising more than $10,000 and collecting almost 7,000 pounds of food to benefit the victims of the tornado that hit Harrisburg, Illinois last month.
Illini 2B Reid Roper is from Harrisburg and it was his idea to organize this.