April 13, 2004

Box Score

Peoria, Ill. - The University of Illinois baseball team gave up a season-high 17 hits while falling to Bradley, 12-5, this evening at O'Brien Field in Peoria, Ill. The loss drops Illinois to 10-17 overall as Bradley improves to 17-10-1 overall.

Bradley touched Illinois starter Andy Sigerich for a pair right away in the first inning, using a pair of singles and a double to take an early 2-0 lead. Bradley extended its lead in the bottom half of the second when Sigerich allowed three more runs, watching the lead grow to 5-0, while giving way to Brandon Murphy en route.

Bradley used a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the third to extend its lead to 6-0.

Illinois attempted to start its climb back in the top half of the fourth with some help from BU starter Mike Jakubowski. After cruising through the first three innings, allowing only two hits, the senior could not find the strike zone in the fourth and walked the first four batters of the frame to force in a run in the form of Chad Frk to close the gap to 6-1 before being pulled in favor of Brandon Magee. Illinois added another run in the frame when Eric Eymann came in on a Drew Davidson sac fly to move the Bradley lead to 6-2.

However, BU answered those two runs with five of its own in the bottom of the fourth, two which came when Jonathan Smiley gave up a two-out, two-run homer to Jonathan Smith. Those five runs moved the lead to seven at 11-2 in favor of the Braves.

An unearned run scored by the Braves with two out in the bottom of the sixth moves the lead to 12-2.

Illinois grabbed another run in the top of the sixth when Eric Eymann doubled and came home on a ground out from Ryan Hastings to move to score to 12-3. Illinois tagged on another pair of runs in the ninth inning to move to the final 12-5 score.

Sigerich suffered the loss, falling to 0-3 on the year, after allowing five runs on five hits in 1 2/3 innings. BU reliever Brandon Magee got the win, moving to 3-1, after allowing

Illinois returns to action this weekend for a four-game Big Ten series at Michigan. First pitch for Friday's game one is scheduled for 2 p.m. central time.