Woo hoo!
If only I was there at Alex Box Stadium tonight! Illinois defeated the #1 LSU Tigers in a nailbiter 3-1. Tonight’s game was the first of three games this weekend and the Illini got off to a great start, showing that they can win against ANY team.
Starter Phil Haig did what he’s been doing all season, pitching well and keeping the run count down. Haig spread out 8 hits and 3 walks over 7 innings only allowing one run, a Nicholas Pontiff homerun in the sixth inning.
Brandon Wikoff got things going in the first inning after getting a free pass from LSU pitcher Anthony Ranaudo. He promptly stole second then scored on an LSU error. It stayed 1-0 till Pontiff’s homer in the sixth.
Watching Live Stats on my browser (more on that later), my nails were bitten down to nothing by the top of ninth when another LSU error put Casey McMurray on first. Wikoff bunted him to second. One out later, Aaron Johnson hit a clutch two-run blast to left field. That put the good guys up by two runs.
LSU made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth getting two runners on base via a base hit and a error. But reliever Illini reliever Nick Chmielewski got the job done striking out the side.
Well played, Illini!! One down, two more to go.
Side notes:
I occasionally like to make fun of our Gametracker but truth be told, I think it’s a pretty good system for streaming live sports content. LSU doesn’t use Gametracker though. They use Live Stats and while it does deliver the basic data, it is pretty lacking compared to GT.
A snapshot of Live Stats
It has an annoying habit of refreshing the web page and relocating where I was at. Also, it has very few clickable links like players bios or things like that.
I’m not trying to be picky but working in the web like I do, I notice stuff like this. And it really did make me miss Gametracker.
Finally, Happy Birthday to 3B Dom Altobelli Saturday! What better birthday present than to win another from LSU.