This weekend, undefeated Illinois (3-0) travels to Boca Raton, Florida to take on Florida Atlantic Owls (3-1). FAU just came off a midweek loss against tough Miami but Illinois and Coach Dan Hartleb hope to keep their wins comin’.
Teamwork is key to winning baseball games. These are the players who made the headlines last weekend, however…
Zac Taylor 6 for 13, 2 doubles, HR
Cam McDonald 4 for 10, 3 rbis, 3 runs
Michael Massey 4 for 10, 2 runs
According to the FightingIllini.com weekend preview, Coach Hartleb has announced the starting three:
- Friday: Quinn Snarskis – 0-0, 4.91 ERA
- Saturday: Andy Fisher – 0-0, 3.18 ERA
- Sunday: Cyrillo Watson – 1-0, 0.00 ERA
All three pitched fine last weekend but I bet Coach will have his eye on Watson this time around. What a performance he put in last Sunday. Cyrillo pitched six scoreless innings in Illinois’ win against Sacred Heart.
| Florida Atlantic University Owls | |
| FAU Baseball Stadium | |
| Friday, February 22 | 5:30pm CT Saturday, February 23 | 3pm CT Sunday, February 24 | 11am CT |  |
Like Illinois, the Owls of FAU swept their opponents last weekend. They went 3-0 against the Cincinnati Bearcats. That included a season opening 9-0 shutout.
Things came down to earth for the Owls when Miami handed them their first loss during Wednesday’s midweek game.
Regardless, FAU looks to be a tough matchup.
Random Ramblings
Reading the FightingIllini.com write-up on David Craan, I appreciate even more the teamwork that is involved in being on the Illinois baseball team. In addition to his other community activities, I had no idea he was the team photographer for the social media pages. As a photographer myself, I say “Keep it up, David!”
I know the season is early but I couldn’t help but notice that the Minnesota Golden Gophers were quickly knocked out of the national polls. They had a rough start to the 2019 season going 1-3. Not only that, they were beaten bad, outscored by over ten runs in two of the games.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not the type to root too much against other Big Ten teams until the conference season starts. I like a strong Big Ten. We’ll see how long it takes before Illinois starts getting noticed.
As of this week, only Michigan is ranked. They are ranked as high as #17.
Good luck, Illini!!