This weekend takes the Illini baseball team south again. This time they head to the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area for the Coastal Carolina Invitational. Participating with Illinois are Pittsburgh, St John’s, and host Coastal Carolina.
Here’s the link to the FightingIllini.com pre-tournament preview.
All four of these teams have noted talent but each have stumbled a bit out of the gate in 2012. In fact, none have a winning record so far (CCU has 3-3 record). But there’s no doubt, all are chomping at the bit for a big weekend.
Illinois is looking at a repeat engagement with the St John’s Red Storm (3-4). It was St John’s who Illinois recorded their first victory this year. That was the “John Kravetz” game, if you remember. The Illini will be playing Coastal Carolina twice this weekend.
Speaking of Kravetz, no, he won’t be facing St John’s this weekend. That would have 
made a great story but I think Coach Hartleb is too smart for that. That’s putting too much unnecessary pressure on the freshman. Hartleb is letting veteran Kevin Johnson take on the Red Storm Friday. Kravetz is slotted to start against CCU on Saturday night, however.
Nick Chmielewski (left) is scheduled to go against Pittsburgh Saturday morning for his third start of the year. As for the second game against Coastal Carolina on Sunday, it’s still TBA.
Now the opponents:
St John’s Red Storm |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2, 2012 | 11:00 am CT | |||
| BB&T Coastal Field | Myrtle Beach, SC | |||
| Program website link | 2012 Record 2-4 | |||
| Head Coach: Ed Blankmeyer | Key player: Jeremy Baltz | |||
The Red Storm was Illinois’ first victim of the year when John Kravetz made his Freshman of the Week appearance. Despite high predictions, the Red Storm are struggling at 2-4.
OF Jeremy Baltz though, is proving the the pundits correct by starting out the year fine. He’s hitting .226 but leading the team with 6 rbis. IF Matt Wessinger is someone else to watch for. He leads the Red Storm in hitting with a .484 batting average and 8 runs scored.
Pittsburgh Panthers |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 3, 2012 | 12:00 noon CT | |||
| BB&T Coastal Field | Myrtle Beach, SC | |||
| Program website link | 2012 Record | 3-4 | ||
| Head Coach: | Jim Gilligan | Key player: | Rick Devereaux | |
Pitt can be summed up as all hit/no pitch.
Led by 1B/C Rick Devereaux (3 HR, 17 rbis), the Panthers have a solid offense which has scored 61 runs in seven games. On the pitching end of things, their ERA rockets up to 8.26 which is why their record is only 3-4.
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 3, 2012 | 5:00 pm CT | |||
| March 4, 2012 | 11:00 am CT | |||
| Watson Stadium | Conway, SC | |||
| Program website link | 2012 Record | 3-3 | ||
| Head Coach: | Gary Gilmore | Key player: | Bryce Dial | |
Chanticleer OF/SP Bryce Dial is only hitting .143 so far this year. Yet, he leads the team in rbis and runs scored, He also has the only homerun for the team. That might speak more to the low team batting average of Coastal Carolina of .201.
That said, Coastal Carolina is the only team coming in to the tournament with at least as many wins as losses. Every other team can’t say that. Pitching might be the reason keeping them in the games. CC has a nifty 2.33 team ERA.
How to follow the games at the Coastal Carolina Invitational
As usual, you can follow along with GameTracker (just click on the link on the Fighting Illini baseball page among others. My guess is that there will be Live Blogs for the games too. They’ve been pretty popular. You can access those on the Fighting Illini Baseball page near game time.
…and good news! It looks like there will be access to a live audio stream for the Coastal Carolina games courtesy of Coastal Carolina. Here is the link for the live audio stream.
…and on a personal note
I just spent the last few evenings photographing the rehearsals of the local play at the Virginia Theater that my daughter is in. I love theater photography but it sure makes me appreciate the times I shoot Illinois baseball. Light! Light! Where is the light?!
The home opener can’t come fast enough.