March 10, 2002

Box Score

Louisville, Ky. - Thanks to a game-opening homerun from Drew Davidson and another by catcher Patrick Arlis in the sixth inning, the Illinois Fighting Illini defeated the Louisville Cardinals 6-5 on Sunday, at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Ky.

The win was the second of the day for Illinois who also enjoyed a 5-4 come-from-behind triumph over Kent State on Sunday morning. Illinois improves to 4-1 on the season and senior All-American Andy Dickinson pushed his record to 2-0 with another solid effort.

For the second game in a row, freshman left fielder Drew Davidson opened the game with a solo shot over the right-field fence. In his two games on Sunday, the freshman from West Des Moines, Iowa, had three home runs, each of which put Illinois the lead, and a single.

While Illinois' opponents had trouble shutting down Davidson, the Illini had trouble stopping Louisville's Mark Jurich early in the game. The right fielder hit two homeruns in his first-two plate appearances and gave the Cardinals an early 3-1 advantage.

But like they did in game one, the Orange and Blue would rally, this time to score a pair of runs in the fourth inning and tie the game at 3-3. Patrick Arlis opened the inning with a walk and Brandon Cashman followed by being hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second with nobody out. A wild pitch by the Cardinals moved the runners to second and third and Brian Raymond pulled Illinois to within a run after hitting a sacrifice fly to right field. Chad Frk followed Raymond's sacrifice with a single to score Cashman and the game was knotted at 3-3.

The man who started the Illinois rally in the fourth gave them the lead for good in the sixth, as Arlis hit his first homerun of the season, a deep shot over the right-field fence, to put the Illini in front 4-3.

Illinois would go on to add two more important insurance runs in the seventh inning thanks to a throwing error by the Cardinal right fielder.

From that point on, Andy Dickinson took control. After giving up the three-early runs, the All-American shut down the Cardinals for the next-five innings holding Louisville to just two more runs before giving away to Josh Lane in the ninth.

With the Illini leading 6-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and two runners on, Lane came in to shutdown Louisville catcher Fernando Isa to pick up his first save of the year and preserve the 6-5 win.

###GO ILLINI##