As if minor league baseball wasn’t enough pressure, Rohde (seen right with Ryan Hastings with the Illini in 2007) entered law school at John Marshall.  The Illini baseball players already know what it’s like to balance college ball and undergraduate studies.  Rohde has taken it to the next level with law school and minor league ball. 

Rohde says he would like to combine his love and knowledge of sports with his new training in law:

“Ideally I’d like to combine my sports background with my JD and work in sports law. I’d like to explore opportunities where my sports experience would be an asset.”

It’ll be tough row to hoe but Mike is someone who is up to the task.  Good luck, #9!

Brandon Wikoff hit his second homerun in as many days last Wednesday.  Unfortunately, it was in a losing cause as his AA Corpus Christi Hooks lost 3-2.  But Brandon’s effort’s were rewarded with a leading photo of him on MiLB’.com’s game wrap-up page.

For the year, Wikoff is hitting .308 with 3 homeruns.

Closer to home in Gary, Indiana, two alums had good games on Thursday.  Pitching for the Gary Southside Railcats, Scott Shaw pitched a gem, allowing only one hit on six hits. That gives him 11 wins on the year which is the highest on the Railcats’ squad.

Former Illini teammate Mike Rohde had Shaw’s back, it seems. In the 12-1 win over the Lincoln Saltdogs, Rohde collected three hits including a double.  That double adds to Rohde’s single season club record.

The Railcats are in a tight race right now for first place in the Central Division in the American Association.  With one game left in the season, they are one game behind the Wichita Wingnuts.

Good luck guys!

Former catcher Lars Davis (left with Illinois) had a fantastic game with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers’ record setting 17-5 performance at their new ONEOK Field.  He hit two homers and went three for four.

Don’t look now but Davis is hitting .304 with six homers for the AA Drillers.  He is showing some power that we’re used to seeing from him at Illinois Field.

I hope Davis had a chance to talk to the shortstop of the opposing team, the Corpus Christi Hooks.  He’s none other than former Illini shortstop Brandon Wikoff.  The two played together for a couple years at Illinois Field.  Wikoff was one for two in the game and is having a great year for the Hooks.  He’s batting .351 with  26 runs scored.

Also, former firstbaseman (and occasional color man in the booth during Illini games) Mike Rohde displayed some fireworks during the 4th weekend.  He knocked hone the winning run for the Gary Southshore RailCats in their win against the Sioux Falls Pheasants.  The RailCats are in first place in their division thanks in part to Rohde who is hitting a nifty .284 with 4 homeruns.

Good luck to all three!

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!!!

Good news for former Illini firstbaseman Mike Rohde.  The Gary Southshore Railcats have signed him for the 2010 season.  Rohde, who was the league’s 2008 Rookie of the Year, moved to thirdbase last year. 

And go figure, Rohde got a blogging gig for the Northwest Indiana Times last summer.  If we’re lucky, we’ll see more of that this summer.

Congrats, Mike. 

Rohde rounding the bases in his Illinois days

Mike Rohde, former firstbaseman for the University of Illinois, has been traded to Gary SouthShore RailCats.  The Railcats were the Northern League Champion in 2007.

Rohde was acquired from the Sioux Falls Canaries and was included as the player to be named later in a trade that sent pitcher Kris Regas to the Canaries.

I know there’s a joke about the ‘Cats getting the Canaries or something like that.

Good Luck, Mike!

Starter Mike Stankiewicz

The Gophers got to starter Mike Stankiewicz early as they hit him for 5 runs in the first inning and four runs before he got his first out. Brian Long replaced Stanky in the second but didn’t fare much better as he gave up 5 runs in 4 innings.

Down 10-0, the Illini did manage to make it interesting by scoring 3 runs in the 7th prompting a Minnesota call to the bullpen. To make things more intriguing, the bases were loaded with Lars Davis up. But no one can expect even Lars Davis to be the hero in EVERY game. Davis hit a deep fly out to center.

Ben Reeser

On the positive side, relievers Ben Reeser and Kevin Manson did a fine job once the damage was done. Combined they allowed no runs and two hits in 3 innings. Brandon Wikoff and Mike Rohde both had two hits.

All in all though, it was not a fun game. Down by seven by the second inning makes it really difficult. I kept thinking back to last Sunday thinking anything could happen. Well, it didn’t.

Some frustrated Illini after the Minnesota game.

The good news is that the tournament is double elimination where you get a second chance. The Illini next play Friday night at It isn’t clear. Ohio State upset Michigan Thursday night 4-2. That means the Buckeyes continue on in the Winners’ bracket. Michigan will play Penn State this afternoon and right after that, the winner will play Illinois. Both of those games are elimination games.

It’s hard to believe that #1 seed Michigan is fighting for their lives already.

My photos of the Illinois-Minnesota game are here.

Go Illini!!

Followup: I just wanted to add this… should #1 seed Michigan defeat Penn State, the Illini will remember that they DID win 2 games against them during the regular season. So do I wish for a Michigan matchup??? umm… maybe not. But it’s something to think about.

Ray Fisher stadium, home of the University of Michigan baseball team, seems like a pretty decent facility. I (and at least one other person who I gave directions to) had a little problem finding the place partially because of all the construction going on and because I got some bad advice from a bus driver.

The construction is going on because they are renovating the Fisher stadium. Due date for completion is Winter of 2008. I like seeing money being thrown at this. It shows they are serious about the baseball (and softball) program. You can see the sign (and can actually read it) here.

There had to be at least 10-12 guys with pitching radar guns sitting behind homeplate. Like Pavlov’s dog, every time a pitcher go into his windup, uuuuppp go all of their radar guns in unison. I’m curious how many of them were legitimate baseball staff or scouts and how many were gadget freaks…

…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I finally get to meet Brian DeCaussin from Big Ten Hardball. He and I have been in contact all season and he even did us an interview for Baseball Zealot Radio. I don’t think there is anyone who knows Big Ten baseball inside and out better than he does. We sat and watched the Illinois game in the “neutral” section. If any of you want some good info on Big Ten baseball,
check out Big Ten Hardball.

Finally, as I was talking to Mike Rohde, this gentleman comes up to me and says “Are you the Zealot? The guy posting all the pictures?” I told him I was. He told me he was Ryan Hastings’ father, Bryan and that he really appreciated seeing them. I asked if he had seen the nice one of Ryan signing autographs for the kids between games last weekend (it’s a good one). He said he hadn’t but he’ll get his wife to get online to check it out.

Well, Mrs. Hastings, I’ll make it easy for you, here it is…

…but to stay on topic how ’bout one of Ryan after scoring a run today?

Let’s get the Gophers tomorrow!

Here we go, Illini, here we go!

It sure is nice to be in the winners’ bracket.

No incredible comeback today at the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Nope, the Illinois had things pretty much under control from the very start against the Iowa Hawkeyes as they took them 12-3.

Lars Davis and Tanner Roark

Starter Tanner Roark pitched great. He had a shutout going through seven innings. He gave up a three-spot in the eighth but settled down and pitched a zero for the last frame.

He had some help from the rest of the team, too. Illinois had five double plays, a conference tournament record. Not only that, they were in five consecutive innings.

By the way, the Hawkeyes weren’t taking too many chances with Lars Davis. They intentionally walked him twice him in the game.

Kyle Hudson was 3 for 5 with a triple and and three other Illini had 2 hits. In addition, Mike Rohde translated his single into 2 rbis plus an rbi on a groundout.

I talked to Mike after the game and asked about his shoulder. I asked only because they brought in Mike Giller to play first in the 9th. He says it still feels ok.

Tomorrow: The boys take on Minnesota at 2:35 (central).

Took lots of photos. Take a look.

Took a few at the Ohio State-Penn State game, too. The Buckeyes had State for lunch, 10-3.

Yessss! All Right!! WOW! Way to go, Illini! Woo hoo! I-L-L, I-N-I!!

Whew.

Sunday’s scoreboard shows the incredible comeback by the Illini

Yes, the Illini won today. In a must-win game in order to go on to the Big Ten tournament, the University of Illinois baseball team did not give up despite being down by seven runs in the bottom of the fifth. They kept pecking away at the lead until finally the game was theirs. Kudos to all of the team members for a job well done against a very tough Michigan State team.

With the Illini down 7-0 in the bottom of the fifth, it was Nick Stockwell who gave us some hope. With two out, two runners on and a two strike count, Stockwell cranked a ball over the left field fence that hit the scoreboard. That made it 7-3 MSU.

Lars Davis was key to the comeback with 2 homeruns and 3 rbis

A homerun by Lars Davis and a rbi single by Shawn Roof scoring Mike Rohde in the bottom of the sixth made it 7-5. In the seventh, a base hit by Kyle Hudson, a triple by Brandon Wikoff and yes, another home run by Lars Davis made it 8-7 which end up the final score.

Reliever Jake Toohey allowed no runs in 4 1/3 IP

But, wait a minute, what were the Spartans doing all this time? Well, I’m not going any further in this article without talking about Jake Toohey, Illinois’ stopper in the bullpen, and his role in this game. Sunday, Toohey redefined the definition of a closer as he came in with two outs in the fifth… and closed the game out for the Illini. For the record, he scattered 5 hits and 3 walks over 4 1/3 innings and allowed NO runs for the win. Ice that arm, Jake. We’re going to need it in the tournament.

Yes, the tournament. That sounds so sweet.

The Big Ten tournament starts in three days. The boys have a practice day in Ann Arbor on Tuesday.

And I already have my train ticket reserved.

Go Illini!!

By the way, here are the photos I took at Sunday’s game.