It is getting towards the homestretch of the 2023 baseball season. For that matter, this coming weekend is the last conference series for the Illini.
This weekend, Illinois travels to Piscataway, New Jersey to face conference rival Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights also swept their opponents last weekend extending their winning streak to five.
Illinois is on a bit of a winning surge too, though. With a three-game streak going plus two weekly honors in a row, that has helped to reclaim a winning conference record and an even overall mark.
Despite their winning ways, Illinois still remains a half-game back in ninth place. They will need an eighth place or higher finish to progress to the Big Ten Baseball Tournament.
The good news is that after second place, there is big bottleneck in the Big Ten standings. In fact, Illinois (11-10) has the same number of conference wins as third place Rutgers (11-7).
It’s anyone’s ballgame at this point. Fortunately, there aren’t too many teams immediately knocking on Illinois’ door. Minnesota, at 10th place, is two and a half games behind them.
On the mound
Jack and Jack and TBA.
Jack Wenninger is still on the Big Ten wins leaderboard at #8 with five victories. Jack Crowder has really come on as of late, mostly in relief. Take away his start against Ohio State and Crowder has given up just 2 runs and 5 hits in his last 11 2/3 innings.
A look at the weekend
 Rutgers Scarlet Knights |
| 30-18 (11-7 Big Ten) |
| Friday 6pm CT Saturday 6pm CT Sunday 12pm CT |
| Live video | Live audio | Live stats | @IlliniBaseball |
Random Ramblings
Now that the dust settled from Illinois’ crazy weekend, check out the Big Ten HR leaderboards.
Drake Westcott and Jacob Schroeder rank #5-6 respectively.
This week, the University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics announced twelve new members of the UI Athletics Hall of Fame. One of them was Ken Holtzman.
I remember Ken Holtzman as a child. He was part of the Chicago Cubs’ rotation along with Fergie Jenkins, Bill Hands and Milt Pappas. Holtzman was very solid for the Cubs and when he was eventually traded to Oakland, he thrived even more. He also got a chance to succeed in the postseason which sadly, he never could as a Cubs pitcher.
According to his bio on FightingIllini.com, “In his lone season with the Illini, Holtzman led the team with six wins, 57.0 innings pitched, and 72 strikeouts. After his year at Illinois, he was drafted in the fourth round of the 1965 amateur draft by the Chicago Cubs.”
Finally, a shout out to our Illinois Softball team.
I live ten blocks away from the athletic complex and when Danielle Davis hit that grand slam, I heard the fan reaction. I knew something good was happening at Eichelberger Field.
Go get, ‘em tonight, Illini!
And boys, you know your job this weekend!