May 9, 2004

Box Score

Evanston, Ill. - The University of Illinois baseball team was unable to salvage a series split this weekend at Northwestern, dropping the series finale 6-2 Sunday afternoon in Evanston. The loss drops Illinois to 19-28 overall and 8-16 in the Big Ten while Northwestern improves to 22-22-1 overall and 11-13 in conference play.

After Illinois threatened with runners on first and second in the first inning, Northwestern was the first to break onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. With Illinois starter Jim Conroy out of the game due to injury, Emanuel Bishop came on to pitch in the second and allowed the first two runners of the inning to reach via a walk and single before designated hitter Mike Phelps smashed a three-run home run over the left field wall.

Illinois added a single run in the third to close the gap to 3-1 when Vince DiMaria led off with a single, went to third when Eric Eymann followed with a single and scored on a ground ball off the bat of Chad Frk.

But NU took that run back and one more in the third when a walk, two NU hits and an Illinois fielding error led to two runs and a 5-1 Northwestern lead.

After a 40 minute rain and lightning delay in the middle of the fifth, NU added a single run in the sixth off reliever Andy Sigerich to increase the lead to 6-1. Illinois added a run in the eighth to make it 6-2 when Drew Davidson was hit by a pitch, went to third on a single from Ryan Hastings and scored on a balk that was called on NU reliever Julio Siberio.

Bishop, who allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits in one inning, suffered the loss to fall to 1-1 on the year. NU starter Dan Brauer moved to 5-4 on the year after allowing only one run on eight hits in seven complete innings of work.

Offensively, Trevor Huisinga had three hits on the afternoon and Ryan Hastings added a pair of hits.

After taking a break all week for final exams, Illinois returns to action next weekend against Minnesota. Illinois will host the Gophers over a four-game series Friday through Sunday at Illinois Field.