In their second straight game against Michigan State, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini baseball team clinched their first Big Ten Tournament championship since 2000 by defeating the Spartans 9-1. Starting pitcher Corey Kimes threw a career high 9 innings and seven strikeouts and seemed to have the Spartans fooled. …
Maybe it’s a bit of schadenfreude on my part but sometimes I like to read recaps on Illinois victories that were posted in newspapers in the enemy’s territory. Here’s the write-up on last night’s game in the Detroit Press. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with good ol’ friendly Illini HQ…
No comeback today. No dramatic walk-offs in the ninth inning. Not even a stray cat made its way onto the field tonight. The Illini just cruised to a victory over their co-conference title holders Michigan State in the Big Ten Baseball Tournament by the score of 4-1. We can thank…
Pete Cappetta: Tough against the Big Ten I was chatting over Facebook with a friend who is MSU baseball fan. He says “I was taught it is nice to share. Congrats to both teams, and maybe we will settle this on the field at the tournament.”. It is truly a…
I was pleased to see that even in my absence, the Illini could win. In fact, this past weekend’s series against Michigan State seemed to be one of most thrilling baseball played at Illinois Field this year. The overall result? Illinois took the Spartans two games to one. I even…
Dang, it looks like no baseball tonight. After raining most of the day here in Champaign-Urbana, the sun actually came out for about 20 minutes around 4:00pm. It did resort to cloudiness but I half wondered if they would go ahead with the game. Looking at the forecast (it’s calling…
This weekend brings the Michigan State Spartans to Champaign, Illinois. Looking at the weather forecast, Saturday may actually be a decent day for baseball… cloudy, maybe but warm and not wet. Friday and Sunday may be a different story, however. I’m still holding hope. I really do hope that we…
If we keep these 1-2 Big Ten weekends up, we’ll be watching the Big Ten tournament from home. With Illinois’ 16-1 loss to the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday, that will make it three straight weekends against conference teams with only one win. MSU’s 16 runs were spread throughout the…
Friday, Illinois split a doubleheader with the Michigan State Spartans. They eked out a win in Game 1 in 10 innings by the score of 4-3 but were outslugged 10-2 in Game 2. In any other year, I would pretty much expect a split with the Spartans. But this year,…
The Big Ten Tournament banner including Illinois’ Brandon Wikoff As always, I had a great time at the Big Ten Tournament. Win or lose, it’s a culmination of everything that the Illinois team has worked so hard for all season. They’ve exceeded everyone else’s expectations this season and each one…