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!

For the year, Shaw has done well.  He has a 7-3 record with a 4.62 ERA with the RailCats.  This was his first shutout in professional baseball.

congrats, Scott!

Justin Parr is hitting .346 and an even tastier .486 against Big Ten teams

This coming weekend, the Illini will be making their last road trip of the year… not including the Big Ten Tournament, of course.  They will be traveling to West Lafayette, Indiana to play the offense-laden Purdue Boilermakers.

It’s certainly a key series as the two teams are tied for third in a very tight Big Ten race.  Illinois has won their last three series all by a 2-1 margin.  Another win would go a long way to secure a tournament berth… and would send the Boilermakers down a notch.

Take note… Friday’s game is an afternoon’s delight at 3:05pm.

Along with Michigan State, Purdue (30-16) is one of only two teams in the Big Ten with 30 wins for the 2011 season.  They’re 10-8 in conference play which puts them in a tie with Illinois and Ohio State for third place.

No doubt, the biggest reason for the Boilermakers’ success in 2011 is their offense.  With the help from hitters like catcher Kevin Plawecki and corner infielder Cameron Perkins, they’ve managed to score over 100 runs more than their opponents.  As a team they rank second in the conference in batting with a pretty nifty .316 batting average.

Purdue is coming off a rough series against first place Michigan State, though.  They dropped all three last weekend at East Lansing.

Random Ramblings

In case you’re wondering, Illinois’ offense is hitting right at the Big Ten average at .281.  And perhaps atypically, we are above average in homers hit.  We’ve hit 20 so far while the average is 17.5 for each team.  Here are some other Illinois stats (as of May 11) compared to the Big Ten average:

In other news, former Illini pitcher Scott Shaw (right, pitching in the 2008 Big Ten Tournament) has been tabbed as the opening day starter for the independent Gary Southshore Railcats this coming season.  He’ll be making his start this Thursday.

Good luck, Scott!

Go Illini!

Casey McMurray leads the Illini in hitting (.391) and rbis (7)

Sunday’s 5-1 loss to Florida Gulf Coast was a little disappointing but overall the Illini baseball should feel good about their 2-1 series against the Eagles.  According to the team press, this was the first time Illinois has won a series win against a Florida school since 2006.  That was when we swept South Florida three straight in the early days of March of that year.  The winner of the final game of that series?  Then-redshirt freshman Scott Shaw who is now making his way through the minors.

Josh Parr collected two more hits on Sunday giving Casey McMurray (.391) a run for his money.  Parr’s batting average has climbed to .370.  Notably, Parr also already has six steals in six games.

On Sunday, Corey Kimes pitched reasonably well in his second start of his career… much better than his first.  He only allowed one run in four innings.  He got up to 90 pitches in those four innings so that’s my guess why he got the quick hook.  Still, I’m hoping for more good outings from him. 

Looking over the stats, I did a double take when I saw Justin Parr’s numbers.  Despite hitting just .182, So far this season, he has six rbis second only to McMurray who has seven.  Justin drove home four during the FGCU series this past weekend including three on Saturday. 

Other news:

-The Rochester Honkers of the Northwoods League have announced they have signed Kevin Johnson and Reid Roper for the 2011 summer. 

-Illini starter John Anderson was featured in an article in his hometown paper, the Mt Vernon Register-News. 

Coming up:

This coming weekend it’s another tournament.  This time it’s the Brighthouse Invitational which takes place in Deland, Florida.  Illinois’ first game is at noon Friday against Central Michigan.  A note about CMU, they started off the season with Florida Gulf Coast and went 2-2.  Small world.  

For the most part our players are joining many of the same venues that they have in past years.  The Northwoods League, based primarily in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, has been a popular haven for Illini in the summer.  This year, we’ll be sending seven players there.  Also, as seen in the past, we’re sending a few to the Fayetteville Swampdogs of the Coastal Plain League in North Carolina.

More locally, five Illini are playing in the Prospect League.  The Prospect League spans the central belt in the Midwest but a few of the teams are close by in Illinois.  Crystal Lake Cardinals also returns as a Illinois favorite.  Doug Schumacher will be the Illinois rep there.

There are a couple new college summer leagues and teams that Illinois players will be joining.  As far I recollect, the Laramie Colts of the Mountain Collegiate Baseball League and the Derby Twins of the Jayhawk League are new ones.  Matt Cervantes and John Anderson will be on their rosters respectively.

FightingIllini.com has the full list including links to all the teams’ and leagues’ web sites.

Big Ten Tournament Update

Quick Update… Northwestern was the quick two and out.  Indiana got knocked out today by tough hitting Purdue 15-5.  Both Purdue and Iowa have won two but are on the cusp having lost one as well.  As of now, there’s a tough battle going on between the two top seeds Minnesota and Michigan.  Last I heard it was 3-3 in the extras. 

Here’s the official Big Ten Baseball Tournament site.

Other News

I got an email from the father of former Illini catcher Joe Mercurio, Joe Sr. 

Mercurio was a backup catcher for Illinois in 2007.  He eventually transferred to the University of Maine.  Don’t look now but Joe is doing pretty well.  A senior now, Mercurio batted .363 with 12 homeruns and led them to the America East Tournament.  Unfortunately, the Bears fell in the second game of the tourney (no fault of Mercurio’s… he got two hits).

Joe Sr relays that while they were up in the area, Joe took a few buddies to see Scott Shaw and the Binghampton Mets while they were playing New Britain.  Apparently, they hooked up afterwards and caught up on old times. 

Shaw currently is 4-3 with a 8.26 ERA. 

Anyway, good luck to both Joe and Scott!

THAT game, the Illini had plenty of offense including a 3 run rally to comeback against the Hawkeyes.  Once again, Bryan Roberts came through as the closer pitching two solid innings allowing no hits.  Roberts also pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in today’s losing cause.

As a side note, it’s hard to believe that the Illini bullpen was considered the Achilles heel of the team at the beginning of the year.  The top three in ERA are members of the relievers staff (Kevin Manson 2.70, Mike Sterk 3.21 and Bryan Roberts 3.77).

 Looking at the positive side of things, I’m glad to see that Josh Parr is picking it up.  He had a rough game in St Louis against the University of Missouri in the field and it’s good to see him produce with the bat.  While I see Parr (right) had an error on Friday (his only one for the weekend), no one can complain about his bat.  He went 5 for 11 this past weekend with 4 runs and 3 rbis.  Just as Pete Cappetta had his rough stretch and came out of it, I expect Josh will continue to do the same. 

Random Ramblings

I probably shouldn’t be so stat-centric when it comes to the team but I can’t help it.  Check out Casey McMurray’s numbers.  He now leads the team in hitting with a .398 average.  Never a power guy in past seasons, he’s found his stroke and has 4 homers and 14 extra base hits both good for the team lead. 

Former Illini starter Scott Shaw had his first start with the Binghamton Mets yesterday.  Unfortunately, it was a pretty rough one and Shaw got rocked against the Akron Aeros.  Never fear, Shaw had a great 2009 so I expect him to recover from that.

If you haven’t seen IlliniHQ.com’s photos from the Battle at Busch, check them out.  They have some really good ones.  The News-Gazette had a nice spread of these photos from last Wednesday in Sunday’s paper.  I love it when the team gets a lot of press.  Sometimes, it’s hard to come by.

Next up

Midweek bring two teams which our guys might be looking for redemption and/or revenge.

On Tuesday, the Illini host Eastern Illinois University. They’re traditionally a tough team.  Last year we took it on the chin and lost 5-1 against the Panthers.  I’m hoping for some revenge.  Gametime is 6:05pm.

Illinois then take on Coach Hartleb’s alma mater, Southern Illinois.  The game will be played at Rent One Park at Marion, Illinois, home of the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League.  This will be the first of two meetings with the Salukis.  Gametime is 6:30pm.

Go Illini!!

Scott Shaw, who was drafted by the New York Mets in the 2008 draft, had a pretty awesome 2009 for the Port St Lucie Mets.  Shaw led the Mets in many categories including Wins (8), Strikeouts (118) and ERA (3.73). 

Port St Lucie relied heavily on Shaw pitching him 149+ innings.  My guess with his performance and time put in, he’s probably due for a promotion.

The Advanced A affiliate went 32-34 but placed third in the Florida State League and were only 3 1/2 games behind first place Fort Myers.

Speedy outfielder Kyle Hudson, who was listed as one of the Orioles “Top 20 Oriole Prospects” earlier this year,  had been playing in Maryland for the Delmarva Shorebirds for a good part of 2009.  Just before the season ended though, he got  promoted to Advanced A ball to play in the Carolina League. 

Hud didn’t have to go too far to get to his new team.  He got in about a week’s work for the Frederick Keys which is still in Maryland. 

Yeah, it was only about a week but true to Hudson’s style of play, he stole three bases in that time. 

Congrats to Scott and Kyle.

Shawn Roof

It’s Birthday time for Illini baseball players!  Today, on August 3, four former Illini will celebrate birthdays. 

Happy Birthday to Ryan Hastings, Ty Milner, Shawn Roof and Scott Shaw.  Milner and Shaw were even born on the exact day. 

So if you know any of these guys, wish them a good one!!

Shaw responded by pitching a complete game win over the Lakeland Flying Tigers (FYI.. that’s Shawn Roof’s former team).  Shaw gave up just one run on four hits.  He showed great control walking none and striking out seven. 

Shaw’s been getting a lot of work in this year with St Lucie.  He’s pitched 21 games and 113+ innings with them.  With a 3.72 ERA, he has 5-7 record which ain’t bad considering he’s on a team that’s in the cellar. 

Hudson off to a good start with the Aberdeen Ironbirds

The 2008 Illini draftees have made a good impression so far in the minors. If the first couple weeks are any indication, they are in the pros for a while.

Former Illini and All-Big Ten centerfielder Kyle Hudson is at the Orioles’ A farm team in Aberdeen.  He’s already off to hot start.  He’s hitting .280 (7 for 33) with 5 rbis with 7 walks.  As he did with Illinois, Kyle is playing centerfield.

Scott Shaw, who was drafted by the Mets, is spending time with the Brooklyn Cyclones.  In two starts and one relief, he’s allowed two just runs in 14 innings.  In those 14 innings, Shaw’s KOed 18 batters.

Interestingly, one appearance (the relief in which Shaw got the win) was against Hudson’s team, the Aberdeen Ironbirds, but Shaw didn’t have the pleasure of facing off against his old teammate.

Finally, for those who remember the Illini from before this year, Tanner Roark was a All-Big Ten second team starting pitcher in 2007.  Thanks to Tanner, we won the first game in the 2007 Big Ten Tournament against Iowa.  Well, Roark was declared ineligible in 2008 because of his academics.

That didn’t stop the Texas Rangers from taking a flier on Tanner in this year’s draft.  And so far, he’s looking pretty good in the Rangers’ team in the Rookie League in the Arizona League.  Roark has been put in the role as reliever in three games.  While three games and five innings is a small sample size, he hasn’t allowed a run yet and has struck out six batters while walking no one.

Good luck to all!