April 9, 2006

Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Illinois scored twice in the ninth inning after giving up a six-run lead to take the first game of Sunday's doubleheader at Ohio State. But the Buckeyes rebounded for a 9-1 victory in the series finale, taking three of four games from Illinois in the Big Ten series.

"All weekend, Ohio State's pitchers had a plan and went after our hitters," Illini coach Dan Hartleb said. "We didn't make any adjustments at the plate that took them away from their game plan."

The Illini (15-12 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) came out strong after dropping a doubleheader on Saturday as Ryan Snowden was hit by a pitch to start the game and Mike Rohde drew a walk. One out later, Chase Kliment doubled to the left-center gap to drive in both runners and give Illinois a 2-0 first-inning lead.

The Orange and Blue added three more in the second when Trevor Huisinga reached on a fielding error by OSU second baseman Jason Zoeller and advanced to second when shortstop Jedidiah Stephen mishandled the throw from the catcher on Huisinga's stolen base attempt. Joe Bonadonna was hit by a pitch and Snowden reached on another Buckeye fielding error to load the bases. Rohde then pulled a base hit into right field to drive in two and move Snowden to third. Rohde and Snowden then executed a double steal to perfection as Rohde got into a run-down between first and second, and Snowden beat the throw home from the shortstop, putting Illinois ahead 5-0. The Illini added another run in the fourth on an RBI single by Kliment to push their margin to 6-0.

Ohio State (19-7, 6-2) responded with a run in the fourth and pushed another across in the fifth off Illinois starter Tanner Roark. The Buckeyes battered reliever Ben Reeser in the sixth, knocking the freshman around for four runs on four hits. But the real damage was done when Matt Whitmore came on in relief of Reeser and threw a wild pitch, which catcher Lars Davis recovered and threw into the OSU dugout, allowing two runs to score on the play. Before the inning was over, Ohio State had tied the game 6-6.

Whitmore settled down in the seventh and eighth, allowing only one hit, but Illinois was unable to manufacture a run until the ninth. Snowden led off with a double, Rohde walked and Dave Schultz sacrificed the runners over. Kliment's sacrifice fly brought in Snowden and put Rohde on third, allowing him to score on Hastings' slow-roller infield single. After a one-out error in the bottom of the inning, the Illini defense came up with a 5-4-3 double play to get the 8-6 win in what was supposed to be a seven-inning game.

Unfortunately, Illinois was unable to build off the momentum of game one as OSU freshman starter J.B. Schuck had his second strong outing in as many starts. Schuck, the third lefthanded starter the Illini saw in the weekend, limited Illinois to just one run on seven hits while striking out five and walking just one. The Illini were only able to get four men into scoring position, including Bonadonna, who walked, moved to third on Snowden's single and scored on Schultz's fielder's choice grounder in the eighth as OSU won the nightcap 9-1.

"I'm not discouraged with the way we played the games, because we always played hard," Hartleb said. "But I am disappointed that we didn't make any adjustments or do anything that forced them to adjust all weekend.