April 26, 2005

Box Score

Champaign, Ill. - Catcher Chris Robinson (Dorchester, Ontario) had two home runs and a double in his first three at-bats as Illinois jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and cruised to an 18-11 win against Eastern Illinois. Robinson finished 4-for-4 with seven RBI and four runs and a runner caught stealing, and second baseman J.R. Kyes (Springfield, Ill.) and leftfielder Ryan Rogowski (Livonia, Mich.) each had two hits and three runs as the Illini improved to 24-12-1 on the season.

Sophomore lefthander Jonathan Smiley (East Lynn, Ill.) earned his first career victory by more than doubling his season innings pitched with a four-inning, one-hit performance in relief of starter Joel Barickman (Streator, Ill.). Smiley allowed only a three-run home run in the sixth inning, struck out three and walked three in his best career outing. The homer Smiley gave up was the last hit the Panthers (9-30) would muster as Brandon Murphy (Charleston, Ill.) finished the game with 1 1/3 innings of shutout, no-hit ball, striking out two while walking one.

"I got a couple of innings in today and it was a lot of fun out there," Smiley said. "When you've got Chris (Robinson) behind the plate it takes so much pressure off because he has a cannon."

Robinson displayed that cannon early in Smiley's outing, getting the reliever out of the fourth inning by throwing out a would-be basestealer at second, putting the exclamation mark on Robinson's monster game.

Robinson started the fireworks in the first inning, driving in Rogowski with his blast to left field. Not to be outdone, centerfielder Drew Davidson (West Des Moines, Iowa) went to the opposite field with his own two-run blast later in the inning to put Illinois up 4-0 after one inning. The Illini added four more in the second on two singles, a double and two walks to take an 8-0 advantage. Barickman allowed five runs in the third, but his offense gave him two more in the third when rightfielder Trevor Huisinga (Bartlett, Ill.) doubled to lead off the inning and shortstop Toby Gardenhire advanced him to third with a base hit. Three wild pitches later, both men had crossed the plate to increase the lead to 10-5.

Robinson then led off the fourth with a solo shot to right-center, and the Illini scored three runs apiece in the fifth and sixth to build the advantage to 17-11 before adding another run in the seventh. Illinois went scoreless in the eighth, the only inning in which it failed to push a runner across.

"The first one, I didn't think I got enough of it, but the second one I knew was gone because of the way the wind was blowing," Robinson said. "But this doesn't mean that much; we have to carry it over to the weekend."

DH Mike Rohde (Brookfield, Wis.) and Huisinga each had two hits and a stolen base for the Illini, and Gardenhire went 1-for-3 with three runs and two walks.

The Illini travel to University Park, Pa., this weekend to take on Penn State in the first series of the second half of the Big Ten season. The two teams will open the series at 2 p.m. (CT) on Friday afternoon. Saturday's doubleheader begins at noon (CT) and Sunday's finale will start at 11 a.m. (CT).