March 5, 2004

Box Score

Tampa, Fla. - The University of Illinois baseball team dropped the opening game of its three-game set at the University of South Florida, 11-5, this evening on the campus of USF in Tampa, Fla. The loss drops Illinois to 2-3 overall while USF improves to 8-4 on the year.

USF jumped right on Illini starter Ted Rowe in the first inning. With one out, a walk, two straight singles and a pair of wild pitches gave the Bulls a 2-0 lead. Rowe recovered to recover a strike out and pop to left that got him out of the inning without further damage.

The Bulls added on to that lead in the second. Brian Baisley, who led off with a double, scored when Travis Brown followed with a triple to deep center, and a one-out sac fly brought Brown in to open a 4-0 lead. USF added on to its lead again in the bottom of the third when Devin Ivany sent his second home run of the season over the centerfield wall with a runner on second to open a 6-0 lead.

Illinois had its chances against USF starter Jason Schmidt but was never able to capitalize. The Illini had the bases loaded in both the third and fifth innings, and left runners stranded in scoring position in both the second, fourth and sixth.

Rowe gave up another pair in the seventh, watching USF stretch the lead to 8-0, before being pulled in favor of Jeff Paarlberg.

Illinois finally got on the board in the top of the seventh off USF reliever Matt Ingram. Eric Eymann led off with a double, went to third on a fly ball and came in on a run-scoring single from Chad Frk. Frk added a second run when he scored all the way from first when Trevor Huisinga doubled down the left field line, cutting the lead to 8-2.

USF got the two runs back in its half of the seventh on a two-run home run from Brian Baisley that gave the Bulls a 10-2 lead.

Illinois came back to tag on more in the eighth. Chris Robinson singled to lead off the inning, and Brandon Murphy, who ran for Robinson, scored when Vince DiMaria followed with a double to right. A walk and a ground out later, DiMaria came in from third on a sac fly to left off the bat of Dusty Bensko to close the lead to 10-4.

USF added one in the eighth for the11-4 lead before Illinois answered once again in the ninth. With two outs, Trevor Frederickson singled and eventually scored from second on a DiMaria single for the final 11-5 score.

Schmidt (2-1) earned the win, throwing 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing five hits. He struck out seven and walked four. Rowe dropped to 1-1 on the year after allowing eight runs on 10 hits. He walked one and struck out four. Paarlberg worked the final 2 2/3, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits. He walked one and struck out one.

Offensively, Illinois got three hits from Robinson and two each from DiMaria, Eymann, Huisinga and Frk.

Illinois and South Florida continue their three-game series with a single game Saturday at 1 p.m. eastern time. First pitch for Sunday's series finale is at noon eastern.