Looking towards the 2012 season

Here in Champaign-Urbana, we’ve just had our first taste of winter.  In the last couple of days, we’ve had high temps in the 20s with a nice blanket of snow on the ground.  Up until this point, it was almost (college) baseball weather.  On the Fightingillini.com blog, Ben Taylor reminds us that it’s 36 days [...]

Less than 2 weeks till opening day: check out Fighting Illini’s pitchers and catchers season preview

With temperatures at single digits, it’s hard to think of baseball but college baseball is less than two weeks away.  Thank goodness the Illini have found warmer places to play… places such as Clearwater, Florida where the Big East/Big Ten Challenge will take place. The Fighting Illini website has posted its yearly Pitchers and Catchers [...]

Around the Big Ten: Argo takes Player of the Week honors

For his efforts last week during the Spring Break Trip, Willie Argo became the second Illinois player to be honored by the Big Ten with the Player of the Week award.  Argo (left) had it coming.  His consistent offense throughout the week made me wonder if he would be considered for the award especially after [...]

Around the Big Ten: MSU and OSU doing quite nicely

We’re still in the middle of the Spring break trip but seeing it’s Monday, I’ll post this anyway.  A quick look at the standings:   Team Record Pct. Record Pct. Michigan State 0-0 .000 12-4 .750 Ohio State 0-0 .000 12-4 .750 Indiana 0-0 .000 9-9 .500 Michigan 0-0 .000 9-9 .500 Purdue 0-0 .000 [...]

3/16 Post Weekend Debriefing: Matt Dittman gets Big Ten Player of the Week honors

Let’s talk about the fun stuff first. Matt Dittman was awarded the co-Big Ten Player of the Week yesterday!  He hit .615 for the weekend with five rbis and scored seven.  Ditt’s timing was impeccable as his big game came in the 11-10 win against #12 Coastal Carolina when he went 4 for 5 with [...]

Is the Illini baseball team showing signs of improvement?

Ok, considering we came into the weekend 1-5, we had a pretty darn good weekend.  On a broader scale, we went 2-2 for the weekend which is a whole lot better than the ultimate result we had been getting.  Not to mention the exciting win against #12 Coastal Carolina Chants.  Maybe it doesn’t it doesn’t [...]

Illini Baseball: 3/8 Post-weekend de-briefing

First a look at the Big Ten standings:    Team W L T Pct W L T Pct Ohio State 0 0 0 0.000 8 2 0 0.800 Michigan State 0 0 0 0.000 6 4 0 0.600 Penn State 0 0 0 0.000 4 3 0 0.571 Iowa 0 0 0 0.000 4 5 [...]

Michigan blog previews 2010 Big 10 baseball teams

formerlyanonymous who covers Michigan baseball for mgoblog.com, did a fair assessment of the 2010 Big Ten Baseball teams.  While of course, I would like to see Illinois higher in his preview (he puts him in the second tier after Ohio State, Michigan and Minnesota), it’s pretty consistent with what I’ve seen elsewhere.  And he has [...]

No big surprises (thank goodness) in program’s pitching preview

Fightingillini.com came out with their Illinois Baseball Pitchers Preview for 2010 today.  Nothing too earth-shattering about it nor should it have been.  The outlook with the pitching staff was relatively predictable.  Sophomores Will Strack and Bryan Roberts, who both looked real good last year and virtually unhittable at some points, will be the Friday and [...]

The official end of the 2009 Illini season

Here is the NCAA Baseball bracket and no, Illinois isn’t listed.  I logically knew they didn’t have much of a chance but I watched the announcement on ESPN this morning regardless in case a miracle may have occurred.  Minnesota, Ohio State and Indiana will all be representing the Big Ten in the Regionals in 2009 [...]