Fortunately, there are two midweek games on the schedule for this week.  One away and one here at Illinois Field.

Bradley is having a nice start to 2011 with a 17-8 record so far.  They’re coming off a two-win series against Western Illinois.

If you’re wondering how they fare against the big boys of the Big Ten, they split a rain-shortened series against Purdue 1-1.  After taking the first loss, Purdue got their revenge by slaughtering them 12-1.

The outpitch and out hit their opponents but considering they haven’t hit the big time (Purdue excepted), we’ll see how much this impacts Illinois.

[edited team entry with correct Benedictine team :))

Random Ramblings

I’ve changed it now so all the “random photos” you see in the sidebar now point to my uploaded photos I’ve taken this season.  Keep in mind that though it says ‘2011’, some photos are from Fall 2010 such as fall practice and the Orange and Blue World Series.  It just made sense to me to do it that way since those photos include the players that are playing in this (the 2011) season.

So go ahead and click on it and browse away.  There are plenty of photos to view!

Let’s go Illini!

The Illini coaches may be working with pitchers and catchers a bit extra this next week.  All three Nit runs came on wild pitches or passed balls.  But give credit to Anderson.  He pitched a great game nonetheless.  In eight innings, he allowed just five hits and one walk.  Penn State needed those miscues to score those three runs.

Take a look at the box score and you’ll notice something you won’t see very often.

Triple plays – Penn State 1

It happened in the Illinois second inning and it went down something like this:

Dittman, M. singled through the right side (1-1 KB). Hohl, B. doubled to right center (1-0 B); Dittman, M. advanced to third. Hendrickson hit into triple play 1b to ss to 3b (1-2 BKS); Hohl, B. out on the play; Dittman, M. out on the play. 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.

Justin Parr (right) got two hits Saturday including a double.  Justin, who started out the season a little slow is picking it up in the last two weeks.  He also scored the lone Illini run.

Next Up

Sunday is the last game against the Nittany Lions.  Gametime is 12:05pm.

Penn State got off to a quick 6-0 lead off Kevin Johnson.  All six Nits runs came in the first inning and Johnson settled down after that.  He only allowed one more hit in the next 5 2/3 innings.

Down six runs, the Illini nickeled and dimed the Lions getting one run in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth. When they scored two in the seventh, that tied the the game 6-6.  It was the fateful ninth when Willie Argo (left) hit his triple and scored on Parr’s basehit.

Will Strack got the win on 1 1/3 scoreless innings.  In that time, he struck out three batters.  Wes Braun came in and got his his third save of the year.

Every starter got a hit in Friday’s game.  Casey McMurray had three hits including a triple.  Argo, Parr, and Adam Davis all had two hits apiece.

Random Ramblings

This is the second Friday in a row where the Illini have won in the ninth inning.  This is turning out to be an exciting season so far.

Interesting move by the coaches to make Justin Parr the DH in Friday’s game.  I think it was a move to keep hot hitting Thomas Lindauer in the lineup and still get Justin some playing time to get his timing back.  Lindauer has been hitting .348 since he was put in lineup during the Southern IL spring trip.  He’s leading the team albeit with limited time.

Dang, if Kevin Johnson can’t get a win (okay, he does have one).  Granted, his first inning on Friday was atrocious (he gave up a leadoff homer and put the first seven runners on) but after that he retired the next eight batters.  After that first inning while Illini hitters were slowly bringing their score up, he just allowed one hit and kept Penn State at bay.

Next up

Today’s Penn State game is at 1:05pm.

Go Illini!!

Josh Parr and company will try to make it five straight Friday afternoon

Now it’s for real.  Throw everything else out the window.  These games count.

Illinois baseball goes back east this weekend to Penn State for the 2011 Big Ten opener.  After opening the season 4-10, they’re now riding a four game winning streak since their win against St Louis almost two weeks ago.  Is this the new Illini?  I hope so.  Their 14-2 win against a pretty good Illinois State squad shows they just might be for real.

Fightingillini.com has their weekend preview up.  Live audio will be available from their site as will live stats on Gametracker.

This year’s Penn State team has a good offense (over 5.8 runs per game) and it’s resulted in a 15-7 record up till this point.  Their pitchers have allowed only 36 extra base hits in 22 games (compared to the offense’s 71).

I don’t know if the Nits have had the kind of schedule that Illinois has had in early 2011 but those are still good numbers.  Players to watch for are Steranka, junior OF Sean Deegan who leads the team in hitting (.362), and starter Steven Hill who is 3-1 with a 2.36 ERA.

Don’t count out the tenth man here either.  If the fans are anything like they were the last time I saw them, they play a big role in a home game.

Random Ramblings

I don’t know about any of you Illini fans but I am psyched about the team 8-10 record notwithstanding.  I’ve seen them in action for two games at Illinois Field and all I’ve seen is a team that is clicking.  Perhaps it was just an issue of getting the timing just right and executing as a team.  I’m excited as we enter the conference season.

Two stat points:  fightingillini.com says that the team is 7-0 when out hitting their opponent.  On a related note, it also notes that our starting pitchers are a bit stingy in allowing hits.  Together, Johnson and Anderson have given up less than one hit per inning (60 in 62 2/3).  That’s a good combination (if the errors and walks don’t kill us).

Let’s go 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!

Aaron Johnson slides in to score in Illinois’ big six-run first inning

When I woke up today, I wasn’t sure we weren’t going to have a ballgame.  It was raining and I heard thunder every so often.  Thankfully, the clouds parted by about 2pm and we had about the most beautiful day possible for baseball.  The game was on and as it turned out, I’m glad it was. 

Thanks to a explosive first inning and some excellent defense plays, the Illini defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions in a hard played game.  The final score:  Illinois 10  PSU 8. 

Casey McMurray heads toward third base	Josh Parr scores in the fourth inning

Illinois got off to a quick start scoring six runs in the first inning.  That early lead made the difference in the game as Penn State seemed to nibble away at  the score and Illinois managed to score just enough in the rest of the game to stem their tide. 

Kevin Johnson gets the win on Saturday

Kevin Johnson got the start today.  Though his numbers probably don’t show it (six earned runs in six innings), he pitched well and looked fantastic at moments.  For the game, he struck out six PSU batters.  This was KJ’s second win of the season.

Bryan Roberts was brought in to close the door and certainly earned his save.  He pitched two scoreless innings including a ninth inning consisting of Penn State’s big hitters (including Ben Heath who always seems to hit the ball hard) which have troubled Illinois pitchers so far this weekend. 

Willie Argo contributed with his bat and his glove

There’s no doubt Willie Argo contributed with the bat… he went  3 for 5 with a run, an rbi and two stolen bases.  But almost more importantly, he made two Mayesian catches in centerfield today.  In both, he bore toward left-center and made a sliding catch which most certainly saved Illinois more than a couple runs. 

Craig Lutes has five rbis in the last two games

Craig Lutes is on a roll.  Last night, he drove in three runs.  He continued playing a big part of Illinois’ offense today by driving in three runs on two hits.  That makes six rbis for the weekend for Lutes… and he’s got one more game left.

Here are the rest of the photos from today.  Personally, from a amateur photographer’s point of view, I LOVE day games.  Even with stadium lights, my camera doesn’t do well with the late night darkness. 

Next up

Tomorrow is our rubber game with Penn State.  This time it’s a 12:05pm game.  Last I checked, the weather looks good.  I believe Lee Zerrusen is scheduled to be the starter.  See you there!

Random Ramblings

Say what you want about the relatively new Field Turf at Illinois Field (it was installed before last season) but you have to admit it came in handy today.  Yeah, I’ll admit I was a skeptic too when they put it in.  But ask anyone in the program and they’ll tell you that today’s game probably would have been canceled had we had the former dirt field in place.  With all the rain we had today, it just would have been too muddy.  With the Field Turf in place, the rainwater tends to just drain off.  Sure enough, from the looks of it the field looked relatively dry. 

For those wondering, Mike Giller was in the lineup today.  Last night, Mike took a nasty foul tip above the right eye and left the game.  He didn’t look like his usual pretty self but he seems to be doing ok as he contributed two hits and an rbi to today’s cause.

Hope you’re feeling better, Mike.

A little bird told me that former Illinois shortstop Shawn Roof (left, from his Illini days) got an at-bat for the Detroit Tigers in spring training on Thursday.  To make it extra special, his brother, Eric also got a chance to hit, too.  Eric actually went 2 for 3 with a double and 2 rbis.

How could you top that??  Their father, Gene Roof was the first base coach. 

Good luck, Shawn!!

Way to go, Illini!  Let’s get one more!

Will Strack struggles with his jacket in the strong Friday wind before the game.

There was a fierce wind at Illinois Field Friday night.  Unfortunately, Penn State took advantage of it and Illinois didn’t.  The Nittany Lions cracked four homeruns and defeated the Illini 16-9. 

It’s not that Illinois didn’t have the offense tonight.  They managed 19 hits, even more than Penn State.  But like we more efficient with our hitting against Chicago State two nights ago, so was Penn State tonight.  They scored their 16 runs on 18 hits.

Rough night for the bullpen (Brian de la Torriente, John Anderson, Wes Braun)

To be honest, our pitching was not quite up to par.  Four times Penn State was able to put up a three spot in an inning.  Will Strack lost his first game of the year tonight.  He lasted only four innings after giving up seven runs.  With the bullpen in charge, things didn’t get much better.  Brian de la Torriente, John Anderson, and Wes Braun all gave up three runs each. 

Cappetta heads for third in his 3 for 5 night

But like I said, Illinois hit.  First and foremost, let’s talk about Pete Cappetta.  Coming into the game with eight hits all year, Cappetta came through with three tonight including a double and two runs.  I was glad to see this and am hoping this means Pete is out of his slump. 

Aaron Johnson scored twice and drove in a run

Craig Lutes continued to hit the ball.  He was 3 for 5 with 3 rbis.  His two-run double keyed the four-run rally which brought the Illini within one run.  Brandon Hohl is a hitting machine and I’m glad he’s not shy about showing that to Big Ten teams… he got four hits today

Finally, Josh Parr raped three hits scoring a run. 

***

For those that saw Mike Giller take a faceful of a foul tip in the seventh inning, it wasn’t pretty, was it?.  Mike left the game holding a pack over his right eye area.  There is good news though.  Word has it that Mike is fine and will be ready to play. 

Tomorrow is a 3:05pm game.  It’s supposed to be rain in the morning but tapering off by noon.  That field turf might come in handy. 

You can see all the photos tonight I took at the photo gallery.

Go Illini!  Let’s get the last two!

Casey McMurray hopes to continue his hot hitting against Penn State this weekend

Nothing brings out the best in our players than an honest-to-goodness Big Ten battle.  This weekend, we’re getting just that.  Coach Robbie Wine brings his 10-13 Penn State Nittany Lions to town to face the 9-9 Illini. 

The Nits are coming off a 3-1 weekend against Hofstra in which they rebounded from a 7-1 loss then won the next three.  They also split two midweek games against Kent State.  Once again, they came back to win the second game after losing the first.  My point?  Don’t expect them to lose heart or get demoralized after a loss.  They’re more likely to become motivated. 

If you haven’t already, take a look at the interview I did with Larry Fall.  Larry runs Happy Valley Hardball which covers the Penn State baseball team.  He’s got a lot of good insights on the team and the program.

Some facts/opinions on Penn State:

-It seems the Big Ten is a breeding ground for good hitting catchers.  Penn State’s backstop Ben Heath is no exception.  With seven homeruns and 27 rbis to go with his .348 batting average, Heath is the big offensive threat on this team.

-Penn State’s pitching is a bit suspect.  They are ninth in the conference in with a 6.57 ERA behind only Northwestern. 

-Offensively, PSU seems to rely on power.  They are 3rd in the Big Ten in homeruns and fourth in triples despite being ninth in batting average.  Watch out for the long ball!  That said, 11 of their 15 homeruns have come from two players (Heath and Jordan Steranka). 

-Coach Robbie Wine isn’t afraid to put a runner on if he thinks it will help the team get out of a nasty situation.  Penn State leads the conference with five intentional walks.  No other Big Ten team has more than two intentional passes. 

Random Ramblings

Don’t forget all three games will be live streamed on Big Ten Network’s web site.  Not the same as being there but better than Gametracker (that’s no dig on Gametracker… I actually quite like/depend on it). 

It won’t be long before we take on Michigan.  The Indiana baseball blog, Behind the Plate, has an interview of formerlyanonymous who writes for mgoblog.com.  If you want to get some quick info on the Wolverines, it’s a good read.

Just a random thought to process here.  Here at the University of Illinois, football and men’s basketball reign supreme at least in terms of fans drawn and revenue brought in.  But my friend Robin who I chat with at the ballpark brought up this interesting point:  of all the athletics at the University, baseball has been around the longest.  Men’s basketball’s first season was 1905.  Football has been with us since 1910. 

Take that, revenue sports.

Finally, if you’re on Facebook, stop by Illinois Baseball Report’s Facebook fan page and become a fan!  I’ve seen a few of you have joined up and recognize many of you and recognize the names of others.  Become a fan and feel free to make comments on the page.  I’d love to hear from you!

Good Luck Illini!!!

Larry Fall blogs about sports at Penn State University and his blog, Happy Valley  Hardball covers the baseball team at PSU.  Happy Valley takes a unique look at the team as it is very stats-oriented and Larry even occasionally expands his coverage to the conference in general. 

In light of Illinois’ opening Big Ten series against Penn State this weekend, Larry was kind enough to answer a few questions about the PSU baseball team. 

Illinois Baseball Report:  Taking a quick look at the standings, the Penn State record of 8-12 (as of Saturday) doesn’t seem too impressive.  But looking closer at their schedule, they’ve played some tough teams.  For example, they’ve played ranked Texas A&M twice.  In the long run, will playing such competitive teams help PSU when the Big Ten season starts?  And given all that, just how good is Penn State?

Happy Valley Hardball:  One would hope so, but we’ve scheduled even tougher competition on our spring break trips in the past and it hasn’t seemed to help.  We got off to a very good start in the Big Ten/Big East challenge (wins over Cincy and Seton Hall and a one run extra inning loss to Notre Dame), which were followed up with a split in a four game weekend tournament in Texas (wins over McNeese State and Dallas Baptist, but two losses to Lamar).   At that point, I’d say things were looking pretty optimistic since, in the past, we’ve been notoriously slow starters.

Unfortunately, we then ran into a buzzsaw in the aforementioned Texas A&M and they whopped us pretty good (17-3, 7-0).  That led to a string of defeats, seven in all, and it wasn’t until this past weekend that we looked like we might come out of it.

If you dissect our 9-12 record, you find that we’ve 0-5 against top 50 RPI schools with our losses coming to #13 Texas A&M (2) and #40 Texas State (3).  So that makes us 9-7 against the rest of the world.  Given that the entire Big Ten only has three wins in forty four games against RPI top 50 schools, maybe we can hold our own in conference.

However, to be honest, I don’t expect us to.  I think our pitching is suspect, particularly the bullpen, and without good pitching, we’re going nowhere.  I see us struggling to play .500 ball in conference.

Just as a follow-up on the scheduling.  I think the Big East/Big Ten challenge has been a fantastic idea.  The Big East traditionally has some pretty decent teams (from a northern school perspective) so they provide a challenge for the Big Ten schools but, at the same time, don’t have the enormous early season weather advantage that the southern schools possess.

IBR:  Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but Penn State has a 0-9 record in opponent’s ballparks but a 8-3 record elsewhere.  Do you think there’s anything to that?

HVH:  Actually, I do.  Part of it is, of course, that we played the top 50 schools, Tex A&M and Texas State, on their campuses, so that’s likely to put us in a road hole to begin with.  The rest of it, though, I think is because of the make up of this team.  We have an ok offense and a bunch of kids who won’t quit, but we are handicapped with our pitching.  So in games where we get the last at-bat, we have a chance.  But with a weak bullpen, the same can be said for our opponents when they get the last shot.

Penn State has actually been involved in seven walk-off games.  We’ve won four and lost three.  Amazingly, when we have the last at bat, we are actually 7-1.  Of course, that also means we are 2-11 when the other guy bats last.

IBR:  Junior catcher Ben Heath seems to be Penn State’s big offensive threat this season.  At this point, he’s leading the team in homeruns and rbis.  Are there other Nittany Lion hitters that Illinois should be careful with?  Pitchers?

HVH:  Ben is having an outstanding season (.358 BA, 7 HR, 26 RBI); I’d actually call it an All Big Ten type of season to date.  He’s currently second in the conference with 7 home runs and, if he can continue to hit with power at Medlar Field, a not exactly power friendly park, he could have a shot at Penn State’s thirty plus year old home run record of 17.  His backup at catcher, Bobby Jacobs (.390 BA, 1 HR, 6 RBI), is someone else to keep an eye on since he’s recently taken over most of the DH role. 

But the big pleasant surprise of the season is sophomore and Illinois native Joey DeBernardis (.372 BA, 1 HR, 17 RBI) from Lake Zurich.  Joey played sparingly as a freshman last year but is having a breakout season this year.  He’s taken over the first baseman’s slot vacated by four year starter (and coach’s son) Cory Wine.  Joey is carrying a very hot bat right now with eight multi-hit games in his last 12.  He did have an eight game hitting streak come to an end last Friday but he has reached base in 19 of 21 games so far this season.  He’s also backed that up with an error-less performance in the field 

Another kid who has come on strong of late is freshman Elliot Searer (.341 BA).  Elliot is normally a middle infielder but coach Robbie Wine has moved him to the outfield to try and get some more offense into the lineup. 

Also, watch out for leadoff hitter Sean Deagan.  If he gets on, he’s going to run.  He’s currently 14-14 in stolen bases.  Unfortunately, he’s only batting .245 with an OBP of only .311, a little low for what you’d like at the top of the order.

As far as pitching goes, I’m having a hard time finding much good to say.  The ace of the staff should be Mike Wanamaker (1-2 W/L, 5.62 ERA), who missed all of last year with an injury and who still looks a little rusty.  The bullpen has really struggled but David Lutz (1-1 W/L,3.97 ERA) had a good week in long relief, putting up 7.1 consecutive scoreless innings. Starter Ryan Ignas (2-1 W/L, 5.34 ERA) had a good outing on Saturday with a seven inning complete game. 

IBR:  Tell us about your blog, Happy Valley Hardball.  It’s pretty unique college baseball blog in that you have a focus on sabermetrics. 

HVH:  The sabermetrics thing is probably something that I ought to remove from my tagline since I’m doing less and less of it all the time – not so much from a lack of interest as from a lack of time. If I could find a better way of automating the data collection and number crunching end of it I might do more. I’ve found myself doing far too much cutting and pasting into Excel spreadsheets when my automated web queries fail. 

One thing that I will do though is use Bill James’s Pythagorean Expectation formula to calculate what we might expect the Big Ten teams winning percentages to be.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, James says that a teams winning percentage can be expected to be equal to their runs scored squared divided by the sum of their runs scored squared and their runs allowed squared.  It’s called the Pythagorean Expectation because of its similarity to the familiar c squared equals a squared plus b squared.

I’ll publish my first expectation results sometime in the next couple of days. My experience with the Pythagorean Expectation highlights some of the problems I have with my sabermetrics stuff.  Ideally, I’d like to plot out the teams winning percentages based on Big Ten stats only.  I think the percentages are distorted by the different caliber of competition that the Big Ten teams have faced during the early non-conference play (Iowa has the toughest SOS at #89 while Purdue has the softest at #280 – that’s a pretty big disparity).  That all goes away if I just use conference results.  However, I have been unable to find a source that can provide me with the runs scored and runs allowed just in conference play (the conference provides conference game stats only for basketball, I don’t know why they don’t do it for baseball).  So to publish it the way that I’d prefer to do it, I’d have to go to every team’s website and pull out their conference numbers from the box scores.  Not going to do that so I have to settle for a non-conference Pythagorean Expectation.

One thing that I’ll also continue to do is experiment with ways of presenting data.  I want to see if I can find some new visualization techniques.  Things like this batting stats chart that I published last year (sometime before the weekend I should get a post up with this season’s data in it).  The chart is interactive and you can play around with it doing various comparisons.

I’ll look around the web other ideas that I can use.

IBR:  Finally, would you care to make a prediction on what teams will make the Big Ten Tournament in 2010? 

HVH:  To be honest, I have yet paid enough attention to the rest of the conference to make much of an educated guess.  I’ve been hard at work on my wrestling blog, Happy Valley Half Nelson, and it’s only now that wrestling season has ended that I can concentrate more on baseball.

***

Thanks to Larry Fall for taking the time to inform us a bit on the Penn State baseball program.  If you want to check out his Penn State baseball blog, head on over to Happy Valley Hardball.

After a monster weekend against Penn State, Illini Willie Argo garners the Big Ten Player of the Week award.  The Davenport, Iowa native took the award based on his 8 for 12 performance while Illinois swept the Nittany Lions.  Argo drove home 8 runs and scored six with the help of three homeruns, a double and a triple. 

Saturday was his biggest performance when he hit two homers and drove in five in Illinois’ 11-5 win.  It was Argo’s second multi-homer game of the season.

Congrats Willie!