Illinois manage one win against #19 Minnesota this weekend

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Doug Hayes shuts down the #19 Gophers Friday night

With a 14-6 drubbing by the Minnesota Golden Gophers (27-13, 11-3 Big Ten) on Sunday, Illinois (21-19, 7-8 Big Ten) lost the home series 1-2.  With the series over, Illinois slips to ninth place while Ohio State moves ahead of them again. 

Here are the current Big Ten standings

The Illini can thank starter Doug Hayes for mitigating the damage.  He provided the sole win with a shutout on Friday night.  A little credit goes to Trent Hammond who drove in both runs that night.

Major highlights

  • Doug Hayes pitches his career first shutout on Friday night.
  • Cody Sedlock moved into Illinois’ single season top 10 in strikeouts with 90
  • Michael Hurwitz extended his hit streak 15 games and still has a 19-game on-base streak

 

Game #38 / April 29, 2016    
Minnesota vs

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  1

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Dan Rowbottom drives in the sole run in Game 1 on Friday

Well, Cody Sedlock didn’t pitch 10 innings nor did he strike out 14 batters.  All in all, he didn’t pitch badly either though (three runs and six strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.  However, his performance was not enough as the Illini offense only came through with one run. 

Dan Rowbottom came though with the sole rbi in the fourth inning with a base hit to tie the game 1-1. 

Fighting Illini Game Wrapup

My photos from Friday’s first game

Random Ramblings

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I don’t know about you but I think one of the biggest stars at Illinois Field is the new batboy.  I don’t know who he is but he sure does his work diligently and seems to love being on the job. 

The players seem to really get along with him and I’ve even seen him get into conversations with the umps. 

Keep up the good work, kid!

Next up

There are two midweek games this week.  Illinois travels to Sauget, Illinois to play Missouri on Tuesday.  First pitch is at 6pm.  On Wednesday, Southern Illinois visits Illinois Field for an afternoon game at 3:30pm. 

Go Illini!

2 Comments:

  1. Anne - Illini baseball fan

    Checking the stats for the Gophers prior to the series showed approx. 1/2 of their line-up was over .300 and the rest were over .290. They have a lineup of power-hitters. We had two players over .300, so the Illini have nothing to be embarrassed about. Kudos to Doug Hayes! And, kudos to the Illini for trying to stay in the games–they could have just given up.

  2. Mixed feelings about bat boys

    The new bat boy does a great job and is probably a relative of one of the coaches. The question is: is it worth the level of risk to have a bat boy at a college game? A 9-year old bat boy was killed at a game in Kansas in August 2015. His family wants the tradition to continue. However, I wonder how the families in the stands would feel if they witnessed an event like that.
    There is also the question of liability since this a state university and not a private business. Has the bat boy’s family signed a waiver like the university camps require?
    I believe bat kids at colleges and universities should be banned, even though it is probably an unpopular stance.

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