Morgan Gilman attended the Illinois series against LSU in Baton Rouge at the new Alex Box Stadium last weekend and snapped some photos while she was there.

Many thanks to Morgan for passing these photos on to me!

Here’s a good shot of the interior of Alex Box from the left field line.

John Anderson (left) and Lee Zerrusen warming up.

In a previous post, talking about about the capacity of Alex Box Stadium (some 9000+), I surmised they probably do pretty well in terms of filling the seats.  Looking in the stands, it looks like they do all right.  Not SRO or anything but the sections are pretty well represented.

I like this Saturday photo for a couple reasons.  One, it shows Willie Argo’s tremendous linescore for his college debut game:  3 for 3, 3 HR, 5 rbis.

Second, with the tiny little people underneath it, it gives you an idea how ginormous the Alex Box Stadium scoreboard really is.

According to Morgan, this photo was taken with one out to go in Sunday’s 6-2 win.  All Illini already not on the field, are on the top steps of the dugout.

Note the guy in the SEC tee-shirt with head down.  My guess is that he’s either hanging his head in shame or looking for his keys to make a quick getaway.

Again, thanks to Morgan Gilman for taking these photos and passing them on.  Speaking for those of us who can’t make the road trips, we really appreciate a good look at the team on the road.

I say "then #1" because well, it’s no surprise that LSU dropped in the rankings.  In the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll, LSU dropped after dropping those two games, their first two of the year.  Georgia (12-0) and North Carolina (10-2) inched ahead of the Tigers.

But the important thing for us is that Illinois is now ranked!  In the same poll, the Illini have reached #21.  That makes us the highest ranked Big Ten team ahead of Michigan (#28) and Ohio State (#30).

This is highest we’ve been ranked in ten years and the first time we’ve been ranked at all since 2000.

Build a new mantle… the Illini are getting more awards

A big reason (but by no means the only) the boys in orange and blue have made their jump to national rankdom is because of the performances last weekend of catcher Aaron Johnson and starter Ben Reeser.  Johnson was named Co-Big Ten player of the Week and Reeser was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week.

Those who followed Sunday’s game against LSU saw Reeser pitch himself within out of a shutout before giving up two runs.  Illinois won the game 6-2.  Johnson went 6 for 12 for the LSU weekend with 5 rbis.

This will be the first time since 1991 that Illinois raked in both Co-Player and Co-Pitcher awards from the Big Ten.

Finally, some good media coverage

The first couple weekends of the season, Illini baseball coverage in the News-Gazette has been pretty weak consisting of "articles" of maybe 3-5 sentences.  Once in a while we would see an article of one or two paragraphs.

But I want to say "thanks" or "good job" or maybe even a good natured "about time" to the sports department at the News-Gazette.  This past Saturday’s sports section had a quite substantial article on its front page on their win against LSU.  Monday’s sports section did too featuring Ben Reeser’s performance.

Keep up the good coverage, News-Gazette!  It’s much appreciated.  I just hope it doesn’t take Illinois beating a #1 team to get decent media coverage.  *grin*

Oh, one more thing… check out Big Ten Hardball’s Sunday post entitled It’s All About Illinois.  As an Illini baseball fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the first few paragraphs.

Much kudos goes to starter Ben Reeser who was one out away from a 3-hit shutout.  It was at that point, however, when the Tigers pumped some life back into the game.  An Ochinko homerun and back-to-back doubles by Chris McGhee and Buzzy Haydel made it 6-2.  Illini reliever then came in and promptly came in and struck out Nick Pontiff (who had a homerun earlier in the series) to close the game.

Despite the last minute dramatics, Ben Reeser did a fantastic job.  Through the first eight innings, he only allowed three hits and struck out nine batters.

Offensively, Illinois picked away at the Tiger pitching.  In the 3rd, three singles by Josh Parr, Joe Bonadonna, and Casey McMurray accounted for two runs.  Bonadonna and McMurray paired up to account  for another run in the 5th when Bonadonna doubled and Mac drove him home with a base knock.

Everything fell apart for LSU pitching in the 8th inning after back-to-back doubles by Brandon Wikoff and Dom Altobelli.  After another base hit by Aaron Johnson, two Illini batters walked and another was hit by a pitch, bringing home two more runs for the Illini.  Three more runs for us.

Big hitters for us today:

• Bonadonna:  2 for 5, 2B, 2 runs, rbi
• McMurray:  2 for 5, 2 rbis
• Altobelli:  2 for 5, 2B, run, rbi
• Johnson: 3 for 4, run
• Parr: 1 for 3, run, rbi

And in case you are wondering how Willie Argo did after his 3 for 3, 3 HR college debut yesterday, he went 0 for 4 with 3 Ks.  He’s young and I’m sure he has a lot to learn.  But boy, I’m really excited about this Davenport, IA native.

What does it mean to beat the #1 team 2 out of three?  I’m really not sure.  To be sure, baseball is the kind of game where anything can happen on any particular day.  That said, this weekend has got to give the team a whole a lot of confidence that they can beat ANYBODY.  This idea is bolstered by the fact that both Michigan and Ohio State have lost at least one game (Michigan to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Jacksonville, Ohio State to Maine).

Next weekend

This Friday, the Illini are at home!  We’ll be hosting the Akron Zips at Illinois Field.  First game is on lucky Friday the 13th at 3pm.

See you at the ballpark!

The Illini got off to a quick 3-0 in the first inning thanks in part to Aaron Johnson’s 2-run single.  But things got out of hand in the second inning when Leon Landry hit the first of three Tiger grand slams.  The Tigers had a 11-4 lead as early as the third inning.  The Illinois offense managed to peck away but not near enough to make up for the massive amount of runs LSU was scoring.

Illinois pitching gave up more runs this afternoon (22) than they did in the first seven games combined (17).  That will do wonders to our ERA.

Box Score

Willie Argo

The Illini did manage to score ten runs today and we can thank rightfielder Willie Argo for much of that.  Argo, batting eighth in the lineup, was perfect in every sense of the word.  He was three for three with three homeruns.  He scored four runs and drove in five.

If Argo’s name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because it was his first career college game.  If you think Coach Dan Hartleb is excited about this kid, you’re probably right:

"Willie had a tremendous day," head coach Dan Hartleb said. "I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone start off their college career like that. He’s a great athlete and swings the bat well, so I’m looking forward to seeing him in the lineup more often. It was fun to watch."

College baseball is often baffling.  With the same two teams facing off in back-to-back days, you can have such different results.   Tomorrow is the rubber game at 11am CT.

Good luck, Illini!

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.

Louisiana State is 9-0 for the season and ranked #1 in the country.  No disrespect to our former opponents but this will be our first real test of the season.  Our pitching which has held hitters so well so far in 2009 (a 2.72 ERA) will be challenged by the formidable lineup of the Tigers which is hitting .367 and slugging .636.

If you’re looking for a weak spot in their armor, they pitching is just as good.  They are second in the SEC with a team ERA of 2.56.

	Games #7,8,9	Record: 5-1
	vs Louisiana State University Tigers	at Alex Box Stadium, Baton Rouge, LA
March 6	7:00 pm CT
March 7	2:00 pm CT
March 8	11:00 am CT

This weekend’s series will take place at Alex Box Stadium aka "The Box".  It’s a brand new stadium, not even 10 games old and seating 9,200.  Given this is the South and the Tigers are #1, I’ll bet they come close to filling all those seats.

A look at Alex Box Stadium, home of the LSU Tigers

Do I think the Illini have a chance of winning this weekend?  Let me put it this way… I think this is an excellent chance for our team to really show what they can do.  They will be on the big stage, playing the #1 team in the nation.  If they can minimize the mistakes and continue their past successes, I’m realistically giving them a fighting chance.

Also, Illinois won’t have the pressure on them like LSU will.  What’s the worse that can happen to the Illini?  They could lose three games to a 9-0 team that is ranked #1 in the country.  If I know the players like I do, they’ll see this as a challenge.

A quick look at LSU this weekend:

Go Illini!