Box Score April 15, 2008
Box Score
MATTOON, Ill. -
The Illini allowed Eastern Illinois to score four in the first inning and six in the third as the Panthers took a 13-3 victory over Illinois in front of 1,777 fans at Grimes Field at Peterson Park. Left fielder Casey McMurray was 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Mike Sterk and Ben Reeser combined to pitch four shutout innings.
EIU (17-15) got on the board in the first inning, taking advantage of three walks, two singles and two Illini errors to score four runs off Illini starter Phil Haig. The Panthers added a run in the second on a hit batter, a walk and a base hit to go ahead 5-0 after two innings.
But Illinois (18-13) pushed three runs across in the third when right fielder Craig Lutes tripled to left and left fielder Casey McMurray drove him in with a base hit to center. Center fielder Kyle Hudson reached on a fielding error by the shortstop but was put out on second baseman Joe Bonadonna's fielder's choice grounder. Shortstop Brandon Wikoff laced a double down the left-field line that drove in McMurray and moved Bonadonna to third and Bonadonna scored on third baseman Dominic Altobelli's groundout, cutting EIU's lead to 5-3.
The Panthers tacked on six runs in the bottom half, though, taking advantage of four walks, three hits and a throwing error to push their lead to 11-3. EIU added two runs in the fourth after a lead-off home run and a run that scored on a two-out error, making the Panther advantage 13-3.
After that, the Illini pitchers settled down as Mike Sterk came in and pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts to run his streak without allowing an earned run to 12 1/3 innings. Ben Reeser entered the game in the eighth and fired a pair of shutout innings with three strikeouts and just one hit.
But the Illinois offense couldn't get anything going, with the best opportunity coming in the seventh when Hudson and Bonadonna drew consecutive two-out walks, but Wikoff grounded out to end the inning.
Up Next: Illinois heads back on the road this weekend, visiting Minnesota for a four-game Big Ten series. The weekend set starts with a 3:05 p.m. first pitch on Friday at Siebert Field.
