After a breakthrough weekend against then-#18 Southern Miss, Illinois baseball (4-3) will try to cement their standing as an up and coming college baseball team to watch. The team is headed to Huntsville, Texas to take on Sam Houston State (5-5) for a three-game series.
How are the Illinois doing so far?
Eagle hunting
Well, put simply, Illinois won two games out of three against a ranked team at their opponent’s home field. As a matter of fact, they were an out away from winning all three games versus Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles eked out on a topsy-turvy walkoff game on Saturday.
The Illini scored a total of 35 runs for the three games complete with a seven-run sixth inning on Sunday to cap off the weekend.
That’s impressive. What’s even more important is that it was a team effort.
Ryan Moerman is coming into his own now and helping with the bat. Against Southern Miss, he drove in seven runs. Cal Hejza matched his seven rbis while going 6 for 12 with two three-run homers. He actually doubled his homerun output in Saturday’s game (see how happy he looks when he hits one out!).
Cam McDonald is continuing to hit as well. He went 7 for 16 including a triple on Sunday which accounted for his 200th career hit for the Illini. Considering that the season has barely started, Cam has plenty of time to rack up some more safeties.
And check out Camden Janik! So far, he’s hitting a team-high .385. Janik slapped two doubles over the weekend.
Other highlights
It’s worth mentioning that Branden Comia’s on-base streak is still ongoing. He is now at 45 games.
While the offense was the key to the success last weekend, I don’t want to overlook a few of pitching performances. Jack Wenninger also earned his second win of the season with a solid performance on Sunday. From the bullpen, Alex Vera was able to get the Illini out of a jam or two. Pretty much the whole bullpen got in some work during Saturday’s heartbreaker. While it was in a losing cause, the pen did a decent job keeping the Eagles at bay so the Illini could get back in it.
New guys Julius Sanchez and John Lundgren kept the Eagles scoreless on Sunday.
Looking forward to this weekend
Sam Houston is a familiar opponent of Illinois. We have seen them in pre-conference play in tournaments or straight up weekend series like this one. The good news is that in six games, Illinois holds a winning record against the BearKats at 3-2-1 (a tie?).
The Matchup
 Sam Houston State BearKats |
| 5-5 |
| Friday 6:30pm CT Saturday 3pm CT Sunday 1pm CT |
On the mound
Head coach Hartleb and pitching coach Allen aren’t making any changes this weekend.
- Friday: Riley Gowens (0-0, 3.72 ERA)
- Saturday: Jack Crowder (0-0, 11.37 ERA)
- Sunday: Jack Wenninger (2-0, 4.22 ERA)
The complete schedule for the weekend can be found at the Fighting Illini website.
Random Ramblings
So Saturday, I was on a big date with my wife. In the car, I snuck a peek at Twitter on my phone just to see that Cal Hejza had hit his second three-run homer of the game to give Illinois the lead. But it was time to head into the restaurant. As much as I wanted to follow the Illinois baseball game, my wife has my full attention on our dates.
Of course, as soon as we were done with our meal (The Beef House, I recommend it), I fired up Twitter again and I was as heartbroken as y’all were who saw it in person.
Nevertheless, it was a great effort by the Illini!
After reaching hit #200 last weekend, Cam McDonald has a real chance of cracking the all-time top ten Illini this season.
Finally, Illinois baseball announced their 2023 Promotional schedule. Of note, the 13th annual Bleacher Bum Barbeque will be held on May 6th this year. There will also be the usual fare such as Bark in the Park (every Tuesday game), Honor and Serve (May 6th), Mom’s Day (May 7th) as well as a few new ones.
Check the full listing of promotions at FightingIllini.com.
Go Illini!