High fives all around as Spillane’s HR wins it
Illinois’ first encounter with the Grand Canyon Lopes this past weekend probably didn’t go as hoped. The offense was down (on both sides) and when it was over, GCU (22-17) took two games of the three game set.
Fortunately for Illinois the non-conference series doesn’t affect their Big Ten standing. They remain in third place. Indiana sits right below the Illini in fourth. Michigan has yet to lose a conference game at 11-0.
With the wind blowing in for most of this past weekend, Bren Spillane still hit two more homeruns. That puts his total at fourteen. Only two other players in the nation have more. Spillane also still leads the nation in slugging percentage with a 1.038 mark and comes in at #2 with a .457 batting average.
Spillane’s homerun on Saturday was quite timely as it broke the 1-1 tie with Grand Canyon. Illinois won that game 3-2.
| Game #33 / April 20,2018 | |||
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Illinois pitching (including starter Andy Fisher) held tough but GCU hurler Jake Wong was almost unhittable on Friday night. He kept the Illini to just two hits in six innings.
One of those hits was a Bren Spillane homerun. That solo dinger wasn’t enough as the Lopes won 5-1.
| Game #34 / April 21, 2018 | |||
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The Spillane Swing
It was a good day for Alumni Day because the former players who came back saw a heck of a game. Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth, it was none other than Bren Spillane who hit a game-winning homerun. That homer was his second in as many days.
Up by a run in top of the ninth, it was Joey Gerber’s time again. While the Lopes did score a run, Gerber got the job done and earned his 12th save. Gerber now ranks 4th in the nation in saves.
Zack Jones got the win, his third of the season. Quinn Snarskis pitched a fine game, keeping the Lopes to five hits while striking out five batters.
IBR Saturday game photo gallery
| Game #35 / April 22, 2018 | |||
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It was another tight game that didn’t go Illinois’ way as Grand Canyon won the rubber game on Sunday. The game was tied 2-2 going into the eighth inning when things sort of fell apart for the good guys. A throwing error and a couple of wild pitches helped GCU score three runs. Illinois just come back from that.
A total of five Illini pitchers saw the mound on Sunday and only Ryan Kutt kept GCU scoreless. Starter Ty Weber had a decent outing giving up two runs in six innings.
Michael Massey drove in Illinois’ sole run with an rbi double.
Random Ramblings
Alumni Day is one of my favorite days during the baseball season. I get a chance to catch up with many former players (and even some of their parents).
Here are a few of the Alumni that showed up.
I got a chance to talk to someone who spoke of his time working as a student dugout manager during the 1970 baseball season. That was back when the baseball field was near where the Beckman Institute is now. He told me how he knew little about baseball then and the head coach asked him to keep score. He asked a lot of questions and he said he didn’t hear any complaints so he must have been doing right.
They called him “Stanky”
By the way, did you all catch that head coach for Grand Canyon used to play in the majors? In fact, Andy Stankiewitz played on the same team as Illini legend Darrin Fletcher. Stankiewitz lasted for 7 seasons in the majors as an infielder from 1992-1998.
Next up:
This Tuesday, Illinois will host Bradley Braves at Illinois Field at 6pm.
It’s a tough weekend coming up. Though they are 7-4 within the B1G, Indiana have been ranked high all year. Illinois will be playing them in Bloomington three games this weekend.
Go Illini!