The UI Athletic Department has said all year that it was going to wait till the end of the season before it addressed the issue of Hartleb’s return after his five-year contract was up.  They didn’t wait long as the assurance came just a few days after the Illini’s season was up.  The details of the contract will be announced once everything gets approved.  Coach Hartleb plans to bring back his coaching staff of Eric Snider and Ken Westray

Hartleb has been with the Fighting Illini for 20 years now, 15 as assistant coach and associate coach under Itch Jones.  The last five years he’s been the fearless leader of the Illinois baseball team and for the most part has had a successful reign.  His record to date is 151-127 with a 73-68 Big Ten record.  He brought our team to the Big Ten Tournament four years in a row (2006-2009). 

More important than on-the-field success though is Hartleb’s emphasis on academics and discipline.  He’s had to make a few tough calls in the last few years but they were the RIGHT calls. 

No doubt, 2010 was Hartleb’s toughest year.  Granted Illinois did break even at 26-26 but with a 10-14 Big Ten record, they didn’t make the Tournament.  Losing two key players didn’t help.  Phil Haig’s indiscretion prevented him from joining the team (see above paragraph about discipline) and Matt Dittman’s unfortunate injury during his fantastic early seaosn really hurt,  Inexperience was probably also a factor.

That said, those inexperienced players just got a season under their belt and are looking forward to a breakout 2011.

A quick look at Hartleb’s record as head coach at Illinois:

YEAR    RECORD    BIG TEN
2006    29-29    15-17 (T5th)
2007    31-27    16-14 (5th)
2008    31-25    16-15 (4th)
2009    34-20    16-8 (4th)
2010    26-26    10-14 (9th)
Totals    151-127    73-68

Glad to be having you back, Coach!

Ok, that’s a very positive spin on a dire situation for the Illini (21-21 6-9 Big Ten).  But the team has done well under pressure before so I’m hoping they respond well this weekend when they travel to Columbus to play the Buckeyes. 

The Bucks currently reside in second place (they’re actually in a three way tie for second in the Big Ten’s very tight standings).  They have a 26-17 overall record (third best in the conference).

Ohio State Buckeyes
May 7, 2010			5:35 pm ct
May 8, 2010			12:05 pm ct
May 9, 2010			12:05 pm ct
Bill Davis Stadium			Columbus, OH
Program website link			Record	26-17 (Big Ten 8-7)
Head Coach:	Bob Todd		Key player:	Michael Stephens

Cleanup hitter Michael Stephens is having a nice season for the Bucks.  He’s leading the Buckeyes’ potent offense in rbis and homers while hitting .374.

That said, catcher Dan Burkhart is on a roll.  In the Buckeyes’ last game (in their loss against Louisville), he went 5 for 5 with a homerun. 

Yes, they lost against Louisville.  The Illini can take heart that the  Buckeyes CAN be beat (again, looking on the positive side, here).  Not only that, they’ve had some 2010 losses against some mediocre teams so any mystique of the Buckeye formula can stop now. 

We won’t be seeing Ohio State’s superstar pitcher Alex Wimmers.  Unfortunately for Wimmers, he suffered a hamstring injury before the Michigan series.  That will really impact their pitching strength as he is leading the conference in ERA and strikeouts. 

And I don’t know what impact this will have on this weekend’s series, if any, but it’s worth mentioning.  Ohio State’s head coach, Bob Todd, recently announced that he will retire at the end of this year. 

Speaking of The Buckeye Nine’s Chris Webb, he conducted an interview of our own Coach Hartleb.  You can listen to it here. 

So how many games does Illinois have to win to stay alive in the Big Ten Tournament race?  A sweep would nice obviously but even a 2-1 win would begin help our comeback.  I haven’t done the standings math this early in the season yet but a 1-2 or god forbid a OSU sweep starts putting us in the “stay at home” category”.  Do or die?  Maybe that’s a stretch.  But a good showing is a must in order to keep the Big Ten Tournament in sight. 

Oh and let me leave you with this photo… for those who were there last year, you remember this?

Good luck, Illini!!

Craig Lutes heads towards first after hitting the ball Friday night

We’re winding down the season with six more home games left.  We’re fortunate to have two midweek games at home this week though.  And whenever Coach Hartleb’s alum comes to town, that gives the media another storyline to talk about.

Let’s take a look…

Chris Serritella continues to hit the ball.  He’s second in the Missouri Valley Conference in homeruns (12) as well as rbis (51).  He hits for average, too (.376).

Coach Hartleb’s alum is 22-22, 6-8 in the MVC and pretty much in the middle of the pack in the conference.  We beat them last month 5-4 at Rent One Park but it wasn’t a cakewalk so let’s be careful, Illini.

Thirdbaseman Grant Fillipitch is a one-man hitting machine.  It’s one of those situations where one player leads the team in every category.  In Butler’s case, it’s Fillipitch.  He leads the Bulldogs in hitting (.359), homeruns (6), runs (36), and slugging (.556).  He’s second on the team in rbis with 34.  Outfielder Kevin Crane has the top mark in that category with 39. 

The streaky Bulldogs are 15-22 but like a lot of teams we’ve played lately, they’ve gotten hot lately.  They’ve won seven of their last nine games.  In four of those wins, they scored in the double digits so they can produce offensively.

Random Ramblings

The current standings in the Big Ten:

Ouch.

Going on memory, I believe we’ve gone 1-2 against every conference team since our opening series against Penn State (double-checking this, yep, I’m right).  Last place is not where we want to be in May. 

The good news?  We have three series left to make up ground.  Plus, 6-9 may be in last place but it’s only three games out of first place and one game out of a Big Ten Tournament qualifying spot.  Such a strange Big Ten season this is.

The bad news?  We’re going to have to play Ohio State (and for that matter Purdue and Indiana too).  Two of those series will be on the road, as well. 

The Daily Illini has a piece in yesterday’s paper.  The team is “searching for answers”.  I guess that sums it up.

Nothing is insurmountable.  I’ve seen Illinois come back from farther back.  But their work is cut out for them. 

…and a few quick facts about Volunteer Assistant Coach Jeff Thomas (because I didn’t know much about him before writing this)

• pitched for the Baylor Bears in 1992-93
• played professional ball between 1995-2001 (here are his stats if you are interested)
• managed a baseball academy in Temple, Texas where current MLB pitcher Zach Duke enrolled

Good luck this week, Illini!!

As for us, we’re even-steven.  The Illini are 13-13 overall and 3-3 against the Big Ten. 

Let’s take a look at both teams.

Zach Borenstein leads the team in doubles (10), homers (6), rbis (28), and runs scored (27). 

Time was playing EIU had extra special meaning because Illinois had three or four players from the Mattoon area (Kyle Hudson and Ryan Hastings were a couple from there).  The coach from the Mattoon high school would make the trip to the ballgame to see his former ballplayer make good. 

I was a little surprised to see EIU’s 9-21 overall record.  Eastern has been pretty tough in past years both in general and against Illinois.  But this year, they’ve had their troubles.  EIU has had a bad case of homesickness in 2010.  They are 6-2 at home but suffer from a 3-15 record away from Coaches Stadium. 

Their hitting isn’t overpowering though they have a few players have a bit of pop (see Zach Borenstein).  Overall, it looks like they aren’t taking advantage of baserunners… they’ve been outscored 206-163. 

There’s one feather in Eastern’s cap.  In mid-March, they beat Ohio State who were ranked #27 at the time by the score of 7-6.

Southern Illinois Salukis
April 13, 2010			6:30 pm ct
Rent One Park			Marion, IL
Program website link			Record	15-16 (Missouri Valley 4-4)
Head Coach:	Dan Callahan		Key player:	Chris Serritella

Yikes!  Look out for Chris Serritella.  He’s having a fantastic year at the plate.  His 10 homeruns lead the Missouri Valley Conference.  He also has 34 rbis and 29 runs which are tops on the Salukis. 

No talk of Southern Illinois University baseball program is complete without mention of the Hartleb connection.  Coach Hartleb is an alum of SIU.  Not only did Hartleb play for the Salukis (he was a catcher who hefted a pretty mean stick, I hear), he also was the head coach for the team before coming to Illinois. 

The game will be taking place at Rent One Park which is the home of the independent Frontier League’s Southern Illinois Miners.  I’ve never been to Rent One but I’ve heard it’s a very nice park.  They have the same kind of field turf that we do at Illinois Field.

Random Ramblings

The Daily Illini has a good article on our series against Iowa last weekend.  I say “good” as in the coverage not that the outcome is any different. 

FightingIllini.com has posted its latest installment of Retrospectives.  This time, it’s the 1950s.  Featured is Lee Eilbrecht and Russ Steger. 

Looks like Illini baseball will be adding some extra color to its radio broadcast for the  balance of this season.  Broadcaster Dave Loane will be joined by various Illini sports personalities including former player Mike Rohde (seen right back in 2007) and former head coach Itch Jones.  You can see the full list of scheduled radio analysts at fightingillini.com.

Finally, Katie Lutes, sister of Craig Lutes got her photo on the front page of the sports section of the Daily Illini today.  Katie plays for the University of Illinois softball team.  You’ll find the photo in the Daily Illini’s softball photo gallery

Good Luck Illini!!!

Before the game, Pete Cappetta predicted two wins for the weekend

This time it was the Illini who took some advantage of the 20-25 mph wind at Illinois Field.

With four homers and a fantastic effort by the bullpen, Illinois closed out this past weekend’s series on a winning note.  Defeating Penn State 15-3 on Sunday, Illinois came out the winner for the weekend winning two of three. 

Aaron Johnson does his homerun trot in the first…

…and gets welcomed at home by Casey McMurray and Brandon Hohl

And yowza! the offense did it in style.  Aaron Johnson, Casey McMurray hit one homerun each.  But Adam Davis!!  Not only did Davis hit his first college career homerun Sunday but he hit his second, too. 

McMurray had four hits on day and Davis drove in four runs.

Pete Cappetta got in on the action, too.  He went 3 for 5 with four rbis on the day.  Two of Cappetta’s three hits were doubles and obviously came at the right time… with runners on base. 

I can’t stress this enough… Pete who is the first to admit his hitting had been off the first part of season, has really come on lately.  For the weekend, he was 7 for 13.  He’s chosen a good time to start hitting, too… at the beginning of the Big Ten conference schedule. 

Josh Parr rounds third to score

And give Craig Lutes a little kudos.  He’s been coming through with some big hits.  For the weekend, he had seven rbis. 

Corey Kimes got the win Sunday and he deserved it.  Relieving Lee Zerrusen after 4 innings, Kimes pitched three scoreless innings.  That was enough for the Illini offense to kick in and get him the ‘W’.  Kevin Manson came in to pitch the last two frames.  He didn’t get the save since the Illini were so far ahead but give him some credit… he pitched two hitless innings against the Nittany Lions. 

Coach Hartleb gave the team some glowing praise after the game:

“This was the most complete game we’ve played this year.  We showed that we’re capable of playing at a high level, but we have to do it more consistently than we have to this point."

I have more photos at the photo gallery.  I’d have more but I made the mistake of buying cheap batteries.  Lesson learned.

Next up

Illinois will be taking on Bradley on Tuesday.  This time it’s for real.  Illinois was scheduled to play Bradley at home on February 20-21 and well, that game never happened because we had the snow thing goin’ on here in Central Illinois.  No chance of that now… even up in Peoria.

And don’t forget about the Illinois matchup with Missouri at Busch on Wednesday night. 

Congrats Illini on a great series!

For the second time in three years, the top starting pitcher for the Illini will be kicked off the baseball team.  That’s right… Phil Haig.  The official reason given was that he was dismissed because of a “violation of team rules”. 

Here’s the official word from Coach Hartleb:

"We place great emphasis on conducting yourself in a way that represents our team and the university in a positive way and Phil did not fulfill his responsibilities," Hartleb said. "We will move forward as a team in our preparation for the 2010 season."

For the time being, “violation of team rules” is left up to speculation but it could be anything.  Former Illinois pitcher Tanner Roark was dismissed prior to the 2008 season due to academic reasons. 

I’ll say one thing about Coach Hartleb… he keeps his players honest and there’s no slacking off. 

In 2009, Haig led the Illini with 7 wins with a 4.92 ERA.

Quoth Hartleb:

“The LSU series, it showed not only our team, but people across the country that we have improved as a program and we can compete against some of the top teams in the country,” Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb said. “It was just a step in the right direction for us.”

and further down

“We just need to be consistent throughout the year, have that mind set that we should be in the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis,” Hartleb said.

I think I get what Coach Hartleb is trying to get at here.  Winning at LSU was fantastic but we had a hard time living up to it in the nation’s eyes the rest of the year. 

The Big Ten Tournament banner including Illinois’ Brandon Wikoff

As always, I had a great time at the Big Ten Tournament.  Win or lose, it’s a culmination of everything that the Illinois team has worked so hard for all season.  They’ve exceeded everyone else’s expectations this season and each one of them should be proud.

The paid attendance for Thursday night’s Ohio State-Illinois game was over 5,000.  John Chmielewski (father of Nick) told me that though they were primarily (ok, overwhelmingly) Buckeye fans, it was good to see that much interest in college baseball.  I agree.  The fans were really into the sport and I’m glad to see it.

I enjoyed meeting so many different people at the Tournament and getting to know better the ones I’ve already met.

I finally got to meet Drew Grigsby in person.  Drew (above) is a Ohio State Buckeye baseball fan and an avid reader of Illinois Baseball Report. I even did a Q&A interview of him before the OSU series earlier this year.  It was nice to hang with him and talk Big Ten baseball with him.  He’s quite knowledgeable on the topic.  Thanks, Drew!

A real treat for me was to meet Bob, the bus driver of the Illini baseball team.  Bob (above)  tells me that he’s been driving for the team for four years now and he really loves this “gig”.  He gets to drive the team then sit and watch baseball.  Bob is a former train conductor and since my son (and I) are train fans, we got talking about trains.

Bob says that the Illinois players are all “real good kids” and it wouldn’t surprise him if Coach Hartleb places a high emphasis on character when he goes out recruiting.

Drive Safe, Bob!

I chatted with Marianne Roof a couple times.  Marianne was there to see Eric and Jonathan play for Michigan State.  Of course, I got the latest from her about Shawn Roof, former Illinois shortstop.  She tells me that he’s growing a mustache now.  After the tournament, she will be going over to Akron where Shawn’s AA team will be playing.  It was a real pleasure to meet Marianne.

Finally, I want to say a big thank you to Mike and Kathy Altobelli.  Not just for the ride out to Columbus but for all the generosity and kindness they showed me while we were there.  They are good people and I am very grateful.  I wish them and Dom best of luck in the future.

Here’s a link to all coverage I did for the 2009 Big Ten Tournament and here’s the link for all the photos I took (551 photos total!).

Thanks Illini!

Dom Altobelli:  3 for 5

Dom Altobelli went 3 for 5 for the night.  Not only does that extend his hitting streak to 15 games, he now has played in 12 games in which he has two or more hits.  Dom’s father says the baseball program is having the Big Ten office check to see if there is any sort of record on that kind of thing. 

Adam Davis drove in a run with a triple

Freshman catcher Adam Davis made a rare start tonight giving Aaron Johnson a rest with the tools of ignorance (Johnson was the DH).  Like Mike Giller last night, Davis made the most of his chance as a starter, his second of the season.  In the second inning with Willie Argo on second, he banged out a triple putting the Illini ahead 2-1. 

Matt Dittman hit a solo homer in the 4th inning making it 3-1.  Unfortunately, that would be the last run the Illini would score for the game. 

The Purple Aces scored a run each in the fifth and eighth innings to tie the game driving into extras.  In the top of the ninth, a throwing error brought home what would be the winning run. 

It was a tough loss for John Anderson who I thought was lights out for two innings. He came in a tough situation in the eighth and struck out the batter to get us out of the inning then came back to pitch a scoreless, hitless ninth.

Box Score

As for the ugly part, Casey McMurray was called out at first for interference in the ninth inning.  With Bonadonna on first, he laid down a perfect bunt, hustled down to first, their was some contact between him and the Evansville firstbaseman and the ball was dropped.  Before Illini fans got too excited, the home plate ump called McMurray out and ordered Bonadonna back to first. 

Hartleb setting the ump straight

That caused all kinds of commotion including a visit from Coach Hartleb.  A couple batters later, some arguments were being heard from the dugout.  The Man in Blue ejected someone… I believe first base coach Drew Dickinson.

As bad as that was, the fans were getting really vile.  Now I like to jibe the umps once in while too but tonight it was getting a little out of hand.  If you want to look at it from a selfish point of view, I would think that our players (especially our pitchers) would find it distracting. 

As for the interference play itself, I didn’t have a good look at it myself..  What I did see of it, I saw plenty of contact between McMurray and the firstbaseman.  I’m no umpire but I don’t think McMurray was out of line…for what it’s worth. 

Again, an ugly game and an ugly loss.  But we have bigger fish to fry this weekend when #27 Ohio State comes to town. 

More photos at the Photo Gallery.