Behind the strong pitching of freshman Kevin Duchene, the Illini got off to a great start at the UTA-Hilton Invitational in Arlington, Texas winning 8-3 against the Houston Baptist Huskies.
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In fact, Duchene was close to pitching a complete shutout. He blanked the Huskies through eight innings until he ran into a bit of trouble in the ninth inning. It wasn’t until a few singles and an Illini fielding mishap precipitated a three-run rally did the Huskies plate a run.
Duchene’s line for his second win of the season is quite impressive. He allowed just 8 hits and one walk in 8 2/3 innings and none of the three runs were earned. Duchene becomes the first two game winner on the Illini staff and Illinois extends its winning streak to four.
Here is Duchene’s interview after the game done by the folks at Illini Productions:
Offensively, it was nice to see Thomas Lindauer get some swings. He went 3 for 5 with two rbis and two runs. In fact, he figured heavily into each of Illinois’ three scoring stints. The Illini scored three in the 2nd inning, two in the sixth and three more in the 7th. Each time, Lindauer was there either scoring a run or driving one in.
DH Michael Hurwitz won’t quit. This time though, he didn’t walk. He drove home two runs going 2 for 5 for the day. Hurwitz is now hitting .370 for the year.
Random Ramblings
For those who are on YouTube often, it’s definitely worth your time to subscribe to Illini Productions HD’s YouTube channel. They have been working in conjunction with the Illini Baseball team quite a lot and putting out pre-game and post-game interviews with the coaches and players. The one above with Kevin Duchene is a good example. Here is the link to IP HD’s channel.
Also, Illinois has announced a scheduling change for next weekend.
The University of Illinois baseball team announced a schedule change for next weekend’s series at Baylor. Sunday’s game will be moved to Saturday, meaning the Illini and Bears will now play a doubleheader on Saturday, March 9 with games at 2:05 p.m. and 6:35 p.m. The first game of the three-game series in Waco, Texas, will still be held on Friday, March 8 at 6:35 p.m.
Next up: Tomorrow, the Illini play two games. At 11am, they start off against the Texas-Arlington Mavericks. Illinois will see if freshman Nick Blackburn can replicate last week’s success. Later in the afternoon at 3pm, Kevin Johnson will take the mound when Illinois face Houston Baptist once again.
Go Illini!