Big Ten Tournament Game 1 Recap Illini 16, MSU 5

This probably won't be my finest work, I apologize in advance. I'm fighting a slight headache, combined with arms that are sunburnt, knowing I have to wake up at 6am for work, and have put off 2 papers that are due. Needless to say I'm all over the place mentally but I'll do my best.


First off the weather in Columbus was spectacular. Maybe two clouds all day, temperature was in the low 80s. Looking back it was probably too perfect as my arms are nearly as red as my scarlett Ohio State gymshorts.

Second, Huntington Park pound for pound is as nice of a baseball stadium there is. Outside of Yankee Stadium, which speaks for itself, Huntington Park is the nicest stadium I've ever been in. They did not miss anything in building it and should be commended. For those who are able to, but did not travel down, hopefully you with sometime this weekend to check out the gem. Perfect location as well.

The picture above honestly does no justice.

Now to the games.

Game 1 Illinois 16 Michigan State 5

This game started out with all of the makings of a pitcher's duel. Phil Haig for Illinois was cruising through the first two innings. The same for State's Nolan Moody.

When God, or the Illini bats, decided a pitchers duel wasn't in the cards for today and decided to put some runs on the board... they didn't stop coming.

Ironically in the one-sided Illinois victory, it was not the guys in the white, orange, and blue that delivered the first blow.

In the third Michigan State's Bo Felt and Brandon Ecklere lead off the inning with singles. Ecklere's was a hard luck as it was a sac bunt attempt that Haig stumbled off of the mound to get after and couldn't get the out at first in time. After a sac bunt successfully by Eli Boike, Haig hit AJ Shindler with a pitch. Facing a bases loaded no out jam, Haig induced an infield fly off of the bat of Chris Roberts to get the second out. Needing just one more out to get out of the inning with no harm, on a 1-0 pitch MSU captain Eric Roof promptly sent the ball over the 365 sign in right-center for a Grand Slam, dashing Haig's hopes of escaping unharmed.

As Illinois looked to be in a big hole, and Sparty on its way to victory. The tides changed. In a big way.

Illinois rightfielder Pete Cappetta was quoted as saying

“We are pretty comfortable playing from behind. We know we have the bats to get back
in it. Plus, it was pretty early, only the third inning. So it definitely wasn’t time to panic.”

Yeah Illinois can play from behind alright.

Though he was impressive through 3 innings with 5 strikouts, State pitcher Nolan Moody couldnt keep the Illini bats down, and unfortunately the defense behind him made it easy for Illinois to mount a comeback.

In the bottom of the 4th, facing the 0-4 hole, Illinois would score 5 runs to take the lead and not look back. The inning started off with catch Aaron Johnson reaching on an infield single to third. DH Willie Argo followed with a double, placing runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. 1B Matt Dittman flew out to leftfield, not able to advance the runners. Up next was Cappetta who doubled down the right field line and plated two. 2B Josh Parr singled to continue the rally for Illinois.

As the line-up turned over and the top of the order was coming to the plate, Illinois leadoff CF Joe Bonadonna sent a ball to 3B AJ Shindley for what appeared to be a routine 5-4-3 GIDP in the making. After receiving the relay at 2nd for 1 out, 2B Chris Roberts throw to first was high pulling Jeff Holm off the bag, unable to turn two. Though it was not an error, just a fielder's choice, the inning by all means should have been over.

With the extra out Illinois followed with 3 singles in a row off the bats of leftfielder Casey McMurray, SS Brandon Wikoff, and 3B Dominic Altobelli, before Moody was able to get Johnson, who leadoff the inning to ground out.

The damage was done though, 5 runs on 7 hits, sealed Michigan State's fate.

We'll get to the official errors later, especially the ones that lead to 7 unearned Illini runs, but here is what Michigan State coach Jake Boss Jr. had to say about his team's defensive performance...

"“I know we had three errors in the score book, but I feel like at least three, maybe four more plays that we could have made that would have really helped us in this ball game. We're disappointed, but the good thing is it's over with and we have a chance to play tomorrow."

Ya think the failed 5-4-3 DP is one of those plays Boss is referring to? I think so.

Unfortunately Michigan State could not respond to the Illinois offensive outburst and they would not score again until a run crossed the plate in the 8th.

Illinois on the otherhand did not stop. 2 runs in the 5th were plated, RBI's by Parr and Bonadonna off of doubles and sac flies respectively, then in the 6th the floodgates opened.

In the 5th A.J. Dunn replaced the hard-luck Moody and came back out for the 6th. The first at-bat was a sign for things to come. Wikoff reached 1st courtesy an error by SS Jonathan Roof who's throw was high and wide. Altobelli popped out. So there should be two outs. Then Johnson stepped to the plate and reached on a fielding error by Roberts. That should have been 3 outs. Key word being should, instead Illini had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out.

In order to save time and writing just know Illinois would score 7 runs. All unearned. Argo single, RBI. Dittman double, 2-RBI. Parr single, RBI. Cappetta double, RBI. McMurray single, RBI. Wikoff single, RBI. A pitching change was in there, Kurtis Frymier replaced Dunn but it did not matter.

Illinois would finish the scoring with 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th a Parr 2-RBI single would mercifully close the book on scoring.

Boss would say about Moody...

“I thought he probably deserved better to be honest with you. When we started to kick it around a little bit, we obviously didn't help him out a lot. But at that point his pitch count got pretty high and he started to get a little tired and to Illinois’ credit, they took advantage of every opportunity to put a big number up on the board.”

On the counter Illini coach Dan Hartleb had this to say about his teams performance in game 1.

“That’s a good way to start off a tournament. Obviously we’re in the winner’s bracket. We got a very well-pitched game by Phil (Haig). We started off a little rougher and had some missed opportunities, but if you look at our box scores, we’ve come from behind several times this season, so our guys are used to coming from behind."


The closing line for the starting pitchers

Moody 4.1 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Haig 7.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 4 K


Hartleb also had this to say about Haig..

“We wanted to put Phil in a position to not allow his pitch count to get too high. That would allow us to bring him back on Sunday. Not that you want to look that far ahead, but we had a lead and we could afford to take him out at that point in the game.”


Pulling pitchers and saving them for later in the weekend is a theme that continued in game 2.

All in all, game 1 showed that there is a big gap in the top 4 teams, and the bottom 6. Pitching, hitting, and most especially defense and fielding is what propelled Illinois to victory.

Michigan State will face Purdue tomorrow at 12:05 in game 3, loser's season ends as they are eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament.

Illinois will face #1 seed Ohio State in game 5 at 7:05.

Box Score Courtesy Fighting Illini.com

Illinois Athletics Recap

Michigan State Athletics Recap

Scouting the Field: Illinois

Photo Courtesy The Illinois Baseball Report

In continuing the series of scouting the field, recapping and previewing the six competing Big Ten Tournament teams, the next time up is the 4th seeded Illinois Illini. For those that do not know, the Illini have a presence of the internet wit a blog dedicated to their program. Thomas Nelshoppen does an icredible job with the Illinois Baseball Report, any Big Ten or regular college baseball fan should pay the IBR a visit and make it a favorite.

With Nelshoppen having more knowledge on Illinois baseball than I, I turned over this scouting the field edition to him to let him provide insight on his Illlini. Thanks and much appreciation to Thomas and his efforts.

Season Overview:
Overall, the Fighting Illini exceeded most people’s expectations for the 2009 season. Coming off their 2008 campaign when they snuck into the Big Ten Tournament, Illinois were big players in the conference this year.

The first real indication of Illinois’ winning ways was their trip south to LSU when they took two of three from the #1 team of the nation. Illinois used their focus on speed, fielding and pitching to win. A Big Ten home opener sweep against Michigan State started the Illini’s conference season out on the right foot.

A month later, they swept Penn State and Northwestern in consecutive weeks, the first time they had two consecutive Big Ten sweeps in ten years. By then, they had established themselves as the team to beat in the conference.

Everyone was paying attention when Ohio State paid Illinois a visit the next weekend. Both teams were ranked nationally and both were contending for the Big Ten championship. In front of over 5000 fans, Illinois fashioned a remarkable comeback to win 5-4. Unfortunately for Illinois, the Buckeyes’ offense was too great for the last two games.

Going into the last weekend, Illinois was one of the four teams in contention for the conference title. Playing Purdue, Illinois was only able to win one contest and sunk to fourth place.

Offense:

In 2009, Illinois perfected their version of the “slap and dash” offense. With a combination of speed (tied for lead in SB with 78) and hitting (.319, good for third in the conference), the team scored 379 runs only outdone by Ohio State. While not known as a slugging team, they weren’t slouches with the long ball either. They hit 40 dingers putting them in the middle of the pack.

The Illini fielded a team that was productive up and down and each had the potential to be the offensive hero of the game. Indeed, six players were named Big Ten Player of the Week.

A look at Illinois will show a good balance between veterans and youth. Senior 3B Dominic Altobelli, the cleanup hitter, led the team in hitting (.379) and really came on towards the of year. He had a hit streak of 16 games as well as a streak of 12 multi-hit games. Shortstop Brandon Wikoff, who seems to have gotten on every list possible, quietly had an excellent year. Playing in every game, he led the conference in hits and triples, hit .375 and played flawless defense. Joe Bonadonna, who had a rough early season, really hit his groove just in time for the Big Ten opponents. As for catcher Aaron Johnson, well, he loves base runners… both to throw out and to drive in when he’s up to bat.

Illinois has a good crop of youngsters on the team too. Pete Cappetta, who is often compared to pro Mark DeRosa for his ability to play just about any position, ended the season hitting .364. Casey McMurray has deceptive speed on the bases and plays excellent defense in left. We will be seeing a lot more of #9 hitter Josh Parr in coming seasons. A freshman, Parr looks like our future leadoff hitter (.402 OBA, 13 SB). Finally, fellow freshman Willie Argo probably has the most raw talent of them all. Argo made headlines when he homered in his first 3 career at-bats in LSU. While Argo has power (team-leading 11 homeruns, he’s got speed too (10 SB).

Pitching:

Illinois pitching began the season simply lights out with an ERA that was for a while a half point to a point lower than any other team. They eventually came down to earth but still did a good job keeping the team in the game. With some injuries/tiredness affecting the staff, Illinois was fortunate to have a deep rotation bolstered by incoming freshmen.

Phil Haig, our Friday starter had an excellent start to the season. Like the Illini he started out super-human but a mid-season injury stilted his overall season (3-3, 6.52 ERA). Senior Ben Reeser, who led the team in ERA (2.92, 3-0) had been affected with a bad back and missed a few games. Illinois was lucky to have two freshmen in our rotation who really came through them. Will Strack was 6-0 with a 3.48 ERA and Bryan Roberts was 5-4 with a deceptively high 6.34 ERA. Roberts had two shutouts in 2009.

The relief corps had its ups and downs throughout 2009 but senior Aaron Martin (3-2, 3.19) could usually be counted on out of the pen. Lee Zerrusen put in a lot of quality innings as a long reliever and spot starter.

Tournament Preview:
Going from first place to fourth in the final two weeks won’t help the Illini in the Tournament. There’s no doubt that Illini fans had real hopes of going in with a bye. If there is a silver lining, it’s that Illinois will be starting off against Michigan State. MSU is tough but Illinois swept them in 2009 and I’m sure the players haven’t forgotten that.

For most part, Illinois is going in healthy. Ben Reeser is questionable with his bad back. I’m not sure if we’re going to see him. But as I’ve said before, the Illini rotation is deep.

The only other question is Aaron Johnson who missed the last two starts of the regular season. Johnson was healthy enough to make an appearance as a pinch hitter so it’s very possible we’ll see him in some manner.

How will Illinois do in the Big Ten Tournament? I’m a bad person to ask because I’m incredibly biased. That said, I understand how competitive the Big Ten is especially having gone through the horse race we just finished. If they can win against the Spartans and gain some momentum, maybe they can go far into the Tourney.


Illinois will take the field in game 1 at Huntington Park to kick off the Big Ten Tournament against Michigan State, Wendesday at 12:05. The Illini will probably send Haig to the mound to square off against Spartan pitcher Nolan Moody.

Again the Buckeye Nine thanks Thomas for his time and dedication in covering the Illini, and providing us with great content.