For the past three weekends, Illinois baseball has flirted with a .500 record. That includes this past weekend when they reached the 16-16 mark after Andrew Hoffmann pitched a spectacular game against Maryland on Friday.
Unfortunately, that would be the last win they would get against the Terps. In a rescheduled Saturday doubleheader, Maryland (21-14) swept the Illini. Illinois takes their 16-18 record into the homestretch of the 2021 season.
A quick recap of the weekend…
Friday
 | Maryland | 0 |
 | Illinois | 2 |
It was a pleasure to watch Andrew Hoffmann on the mound on Friday. He was dominant throughout the game and that’s a good thing. Until the eighth inning, the Illini was ahead 1-0. That one run was driven in by sometime second baseman Cal Hejza.
Hoffmann’s line for the day: 7 2/3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 12 K
Hoffmann earned his second win of 2021. Cole Kirschsieper came in the eighth to close things out and shut the door on the Terps.
Fighting Illini recap | IBR photos
Saturday Game 1
| Maryland | 5 |
| Illinois | 3 |
Nate Lavender didn’t pitch badly (4 ER in five plus innings) but did give up nine hits. With Maryland up 5-1 going into the bottom of the ninth, it looked pretty hopeless for the Illini.
Jacob Campbell gave the home team some hope with a two-run double. With two-outs, the tying runner was on second. Unfortunately, we just needed a few more outs to get the job done.
Kudos to relievers Ty Rybarczyk and Payton Hutchings who kept the game close in the later innings (combined one earned run in four innings)
Fighting Illini recap | IBR photos
Saturday Game 2
| Maryland | 12 |
| Illinois | 4 |
Justin Janas got Illinois off to the right start with a run-scoring single in the third inning. The same Maryland offense that was shut out on Friday, responded with a barrage of six homers including two pairs of back-to-back homeruns.
Ryan Hampe attempted to help with his fifth homer of the year. But Maryland’s bats were too much.
Fighting Illini recap | IBR photos
Random Ramblings
As I mentioned about Andrew Hoffmann’s performance on Friday, it was obvious to me that he has the stuff and was showing us that Friday night. Watching the game at the park while shooting photos, I’m seeing the game through the lens. I certainly keep an eye on the scoreboard but don’t have a bird’s eye view of the game. Even so, I knew Andrew was racking up Ks. I was talking to fellow photographer Robin and we were both nodding our heads saying “he’s got a lot of strikeouts, right?”
Nice work, Andrew! Best performance I’ve seen this year.
Coach Hartleb seems to be rotating between three second basemen and all are having relative success. The three are Brody Harding, Xavier Watson and Cal Hejza (above). Hejza drove in the winning run on Friday. For Harding’s part, I saw this tidbit on FightingIllini.com’s recap: “Brody Harding has an eight-game on-base streak”.
Harding, Hejza and Watson are all talented. I’m thinking Coach Hartleb is finding out which one will get hot.
Next up
On Friday, Illinois hops on the bus headed for Iowa City. They will face the Hawkeyes (21-14) for three games.