Cold. Cold. Cold. The temperature was a stiff 40 degrees at gametime and it was about that when the game ended. But it sure felt a whole lot cooler after standing in the wind for 2 1/2 hours.
The Illini offense was pretty cool tonight managing only one run against Eastern Illinois tonight. For a while there actually, both teams were pretty stagnant. After seven innings, it was tied 1-1. Nice pitching job by Will Strack (left) by the way. He spread out five hits over six innings without allowing an earned run.
.The deal breaker was a 2-run homerun by EIU’s Zack Skidmore in the eighth inning against Mike Stankiewicz. EIU added one more for measure that inning to make the score 4-1. The Panthers put one more on the board in the ninth on a sacrifice fly during an ugly inning which included a hit by pitch and an error by the pitcher.
Final Score: 5-1 in a game Illinois is probably trying to forget.
Other notes
Brett Nommensen, in case you looked for him, wasn’t playing for EIU tonight. Rumor has it he was resting and nursing a sore wrist.
We had a decent crowd considering the cold and rain (yes, it rained briefly). The official count was 470 which isn’t bad, in my opinion. Of course, the fact we were playing nearby Eastern didn’t hurt. We had plenty of visiting fans cheering on the Panthers.
Illinois take to the road to play Coach Hartleb’s alma mater Southern Illinois Wednesday night. Word has it, SIU fans are serious about their baseball and normally really pack the home field. The difference this time is that they are playing in Marion, IL tomorrow night not SIU’s regular home field.
Throwing sunflower seeds to the loudest singers of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”
More photos at the Photo Gallery.
Go Illini!