After falling in Friday’s match, Fighting Illini baseball picked themselves up and won both Saturday’s and Sunday’s games to even their record to 3-3.
Down in South Carolina, starter Cole Kirchsieper earned his first career win in a big way and Garrett McGowan hit his first Big Ten homerun.
 | Western Carolina | 9 |
 | Illinois | 2 |
Uneven glovework (five errors) and free swingin’ bats (eleven strikeouts) did not help the Illini cause against undefeated Western Carolina on Friday.
Some positive takeaways: Ty Rybarczyk put in some good innings (one run in 4 1/3 frames) and Garrett McGowan hit his first homer of the year.
| Illinois | 5 |
 | Coastal Carolina | 2 |
Illinois came back on Saturday to defeat tough CCU. Kellen Sarver drove home two runs, one on a fifth-inning base hit and another on a bases-loaded walk in the ninth.
Ty Weber won his second game in as many starts. He pitched five innings allowing two runs, none earned. Garrett Acton earned his second save.
 | West Virginia | 1 |
| Illinois | 2 |
This must have been quite a game to see! Cole Kirschsieper held the #18 Mountaineers to one run in six innings in his first Illini game for his first win.
Shortstop Branden Comia had his back, too! Branden (above) came through with a two-run homerun in the fourth inning. That’s all the Illini needed as Aidan Maldonado came in relief. Maldonado allowed just one run for three innings and got the save.
Comia by the way, is now leading the Illini with a .412 batting average for the season.
Well done, Illini!!
Random Ramblings
An untold story this weekend is one of Ryan Kutt. Last weekend, Ryan (above) made his debut after being on the shelf in 2019 due to injury. His appearance against Seton Hall was less than stellar giving up six runs in an inning and a third.
On Saturday though, we saw a different Ryan Kutt. Against Coastal Carolina, he pitched two innings giving up two hits and no runs crossed the plate. Glad to see Mr. Kutt has his stuff and I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch at Illinois Field!
Next up
This weekend, the Illini will be participating in the highly touted Frisco Classic. Yikes, have you seen the schedule? The Illini will face some tough teams and have a chance to prove themselves. They will face #13 Texas A&M, #23 Oklahoma State and #1 UCLA.
UCLA is the third team to occupy the #1 spot so it sure would be nice to be the team to knock them off their perch.
Way to go, Illini!
i’m going saturday to the game