Casey Fletcher gets congrats from the batboy in the 3rd inning while Ronnie Muck watches on
On Sunday, it was a warm afternoon and the Illinois bats were pretty hot too. With the help of thirteen hits, the home team scored eight runs to defeat the Purdue Boilermakers 8-3 in the final game of the weekend series. That gave the Illini a 2-1 series edge for the series and a win for the conference home opener.
Illinois starter Rob McDonnell came away a winner in his third start of the year. He gave up four hits and two runs in five innings and is 2-0 for the 2014 season.
This puts Illinois at a respectable 14-11 mark and a 2-1 conference record. Off to a good start!
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The game was never really in doubt today. The Illini offense made sure of that. They scored seven runs in the first three innings and five before the Boilermakers even put one across the plate. From there, it was just a matter of keeping Purdue from scoring. Fortunately, this year we have a reliable bullpen. After McDonnell came out after his admirable job, Nick Blackburn, Ronnie Muck, Tyler Jay, and Reid Roper combined for one hit in four innings. The unfortunate part for Blackburn was that one hit was a solo homer. Regardless, Nick recovered and got the next two outs with no problem.
Everyone seemed to hit today. Will Krug, Reid Roper, Ryne Roper and David Kerian all contributed two hits. One of Reid Roper’s was a hustling triple in the seventh which seemed to catch Purdue’s fielders off-guard.
My photos from Sunday’s game are here.
Weekend Wrapup
Will Krug: .500 for the weekend
Our bottom two guys in the lineup, Ryne Roper and Adam Walton have really killed this weekend. Walton finished up 6 for 11 and Roper went 4 for 11… Will Krug hit .500 (6-12)…Michael Hurwitz continues his Eddie Gaedel imitation by walking five times in the past three games. He now has 23 walks on the season almost double of the next highest Illini… Over the weekend, the entire pitching staff had a nice 2.67 ERA.
Next up
On Wednesday is the Battle for Braggin’ Rights at Busch Stadium against Missouri. Game time is 6:30. If you’re interested in going, you can still get tickets here.
Go Illini!