Sometimes, a victory at home can help change your perspective on things.
After a home opener win on Tuesday afternoon against Eastern Illinois, the Illini should feel re-energized for this weekend’s First Pitch Invitational in Greenville, South Carolina.
The Illini suffered a very tough sweep at the Coastal Carolina Tournament last weekend. Friday in particular, must have been a long and disappointing day for the boys. Illinois was ahead of ranked Coastal Carolina 5-4 in the middle of 5th inning. That’s when the rain came and the play was stopped. It wasn’t until three hours laters when play resumed and Illinois’ momentum seemed to have lapsed. Coastal scored ten runs immediately.
It didn’t get any better on Saturday or Sunday at least as far as the ultimate result is concerned.
Redemption at Home
For Tuesday home opener however, it was a different story. Just about everything went right as Illinois defeated Eastern 12-2 to improve their record to 3-5.
Let’s start with the weather. We had been forecasted for nasty weather on Tuesday afternoon to the point of possibility of tornado action. When Tuesday afternoon came, it was around 70 degrees and sunny with an occasional cloud. Beautiful weather especially for an early home game!
The Illinois fans responded too. This has to be one of the best attended home openers that Illinois baseball has hosted in my time.
The Illinois offense liked the weather too. The wind was blowing out and they took advantage. Drake Wescott hit dingers in his first two at-bats driving in four runs. Catcher Camden Janik added one of his own and when Jacob Schroeder replaced him, he hit one of his own.
Janik’s 3 for 4 performance makes him the first Illini with double figures in hits this season.
With 12 runs, the Illini pitching didn’t have to be perfect but starter Cooper Omans was pretty close to that. Omans allowed just three hits while striking out six in five shutout innings. That gives him his first win of 2024. Relievers Will Lavin, Korey Bunselmeyer, Evan Clark and Payton Hutchings kept the Panthers at bay allowing just two runs for the balance of the game.
Nice work, hurlers!
Here are some of my photos from Tuesday. They can be found in the 2024 IBR photo gallery.
It was definitely a home opener to remember! Great to see everyone at the ballpark!
Tourney preview
Historically, Coach Hartleb likes to try to slate tough non-conference schedules. He’s been successful in 2024, I’d say.
The First Pitch Invitational takes place at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina. For those attending, the forecast calls for a chance of rain on Friday but cloudy in the 60s on Saturday and Sunday.
Here is the Fighting Illini weekend preview of the First Pitch Invitational.
The Seminoles haven’t been defeated yet in 2024 and yet remain unranked by D1Baseball.
As a team, Florida State has outscored their opponents by a margin of 81 to 26. Their hurlers have only allowed one homer so far this year.
It’s time to introduce them to Drake Westcott.
The Broncos of Western Michigan can score. They have reached double digits five times in the early season of 2024. That includes twice against Big Ten Michigan.
Reach into your arsenal, Illinois pitchers. It’ll take some finesse to beat these guys.
Like Illinois, Michigan State has gotten off to a rough start including a four-game losing streak. They have solid hitting but some of their pitchers have been hit pretty hard.
Don’t count them out though. After a 20-10 drubbing by Marshall, the team battled and won their last game against the same Marshall squad.
And this just in: The Spartans have just beaten previously undefeated Georgia 19-6. On Georgia’s turf even.
On the mound
Here’s who Illinois has scheduled to be on the mound this weekend. Right now, the coaches are playing by ear for the Spartans game.
| Friday | Jack Crowder | 0-0, 3.60 ERA |
| Saturday | Logan Tabeling | 0-1, 7.20 ERA |
| Sunday | TBD |
Jack Crowder has pitched solidly so far this season. Perhaps he was just a victim of the rain delay against Coastal Carolina. As I said, the momentum was lost.
Logan Tabeling was the one Illini hurler who was able to keep the tough Ball State hitters at bay. He struck out two and kept them scoreless in an inning of relief.
Random Ramblings
I noticed a slight addition to Illinois Field. Now, there are two installations of an action clock or a “pitch clock”.
One is located in the lower left corner of the scoreboard and the other is behind home plate towards the visitors’ dugout.
We haven’t been used to such rules as college baseball fans. According to NCAA:
Under the rule, with runners on base, a pitcher will be required to start the motion of throwing a pitch or making a pickoff throw to avoid a clock violation.
Pitchers will be allowed one step-off or fake throw to a base per batter to reset the clock.
If you want to drill down and read NCAA’s news release from 2022 about instituting the action clock, here is the link to the release. As I understand it, it was announced for use in 2023 and the action clocks must be in place for Division I facilities by 2024.
Go Illini!