This weekend, Illinois and Nebraska face off in the Big Ten opener. The teams will play a three-game set at Hawks Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Illinois baseball (10-7) has won three of their last four games including its midweek game against Bradley at Illinois Field on Tuesday. Drake Westcott powered the Illini offense with his team-leading sixth homerun driving in three runs. Westcott is hot, too! As of now, he has three homers in his last three games.
Nebraska is 11-7-1 but has lost their last two games. Careful Illinois pitchers! Nebraska comes into the weekend leading the Big Ten with a .326 batting average.
Team Leaders
| Cam McDonald .307 BA | Ryan Moerman 19 rbis |
| Drake Westcott 6 HR (4th in Big Ten) | Riley Gowens 39 SO (3rd in Big Ten) |
On the mound
The weekend rotation against the Huskers…
Friday: Riley Gowens (1-0, 4.33 ERA)
Saturday: Julius Sanchez (0-2, 8.31 ERA)
Sunday: Jack Wenninger (2-1, 5.03 ERA)
Riley Gowens earned his first win of 2023 on a very solid performance against SIU.
On the other hand, Jack Wenninger dropped his first but looked untouchable for the first five frames. For the second time this season, he struck out ten or more batters.
Weekend at a glance
 Nebraska Cornhuskers |
| 11-7-1 |
| Friday 6:05pm CT Saturday 2:05pm CT Sunday 1:05pm CT |
| Live video | Live audio | Live stats | @IlliniBaseball |
Random Ramblings
If things go Illinois’ way, Coach Dan Hartleb may be the winningest coach in Illinois baseball history by the end of the weekend. He is currently just one win behind Lee Eilbracht whose 98th birthday would have been yesterday,
The boys just need two wins for Coach to overcome Eilbracht.
Weather is certainly playing a factor in this spring’s schedule. Fortunately, cancellations have not been a major issue. The program has been addressing the cold, wind and rain by relocating games. Last weekend, the series against Southern Illinois was played on the campus of Northeast Mississippi Community College. Illinois won two out of three against the Salukis. From what I hear from a variety of sources, the hosts at NMCC were incredibly hospitable.
And as mentioned, Illinois played Bradley this weekend. The game was originally scheduled to be played at the Bradley campus. Due to weather, the game was relocated to Illinois Field. I have to say this is the first time I can remember that an Illinois game was moved TO Champaign because of weather.
Sorry I couldn’t make it to the game, boys. The announcement came down the wire that morning. Work sometimes gets in the way. Please come home soon!
Go Illini!