John Kravetz is back in the rotation this week
Illinois Baseball makes its first road trip to a Big Ten school this weekend as they head up I-57 to Evanston to play the Northwestern Wildcats. The Illini hope to keep the momentum going. They are coming off a 7-2 home stand including a 2-1 series win in the Big Ten opener against Purdue.
According to Fightingillini.com’s weekend preview, the probable starters have gotten the call. Drasen Johnson (2-4, 3.19) gets the ball on Friday. Ryan Castellanos (3-1, 3.33), who has more wins than the three Wildcat starters combined, is on the mound on Saturday. John Kravetz (2-1, 4.07) will finish up on Sunday.
Rocky Miller Park |
Evanston, Illinois |
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Fri. April 4 3:00 pm CT Sat. April 5 1:00 pm CT Sun. April 6 2:00 pm CT |
vs |
Northwestern University Wildcats |
Like our last week’s opponents, Purdue, Northwestern is off to a slow start with a 4-19 record. The Big Ten hasn’t been too friendly either. The Wildcats have only managed to win one game against Minnesota in five matches. That 1-4 record is last in the Big Ten for what it’s worth.
Matt Hopfner (.368, 14 rbis) and Scott Heelan (14 rbis) are players to watch in the Northwestern lineup.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, who is Rocky Miller? The answer is here.
“The stadium is named for Roxy Pepper’s late father, Dr. J. Roscoe (Rocky) Miller, who was president of Northwestern from 1949 to 1970. Home to Wildcats baseball since 1943, Rocky Miller Park was last renovated in 1983.”
The Illini need to capitalize on this series. There will be much tougher series coming up. This means giving starting pitcher Drasen Johnson a few more runs to work with. Johnson has pitched incredibly well this year (3.19 ERA) but only has a 2-4 record to show for it. Last Friday, he was pitching quite efficiently against the Boilermakers but unfortunately, he came away with the hard luck loss.
Current Illinois Leaders in the Big Ten
- Jason Goldstein (pictured above) 3rd with .383 BA
- Michael Hurwitz 1st with 23 BB
- Jason Goldstein 3rd with .457 OBP
- Reid Roper 4th with 3 HR
- Will Krug 3rd with 13 SB
- Kevin Duchene 3rd with 1.70 ERA
Following this weekend’s games in Evanston
You can follow the games via GameTracker or its new Mobile Live version. WDWS will be broadcasting at AM1400 with Matt Wille and Dave Loane behind the mike. On Sunday, BTN2Go will have a live video stream the game.
I haven’t mention this before but Matt Wille does a great job tweeting updates during the game @IllinoisBaseball too.
Go Illini!