March 30, 2003

Box Score

Champaign, Ill. - The University of Illinois baseball team split its Sunday doubleheader with Indiana and split the weekend series. Illinois won Sunday's first game, 7-2, but dropped the nightcap, 4-3. Illinois is now 12-5 on the year and 2-2 in the Big Ten while Indiana is 16-5 overall and 2-2 in Conference play.

The first game of the day didn't waste anytime to get interesting. Illinois starter Joe Ziemba gave up three-straight singles to start the inning, eventually giving IU a 2-0 lead before Illinois had the chance to bat.

But Illinois took it all right back and more in the bottom of the first. Facing IU starter Chris Behrens, the Illini made two quick outs before sending eight batters to the plate and scoring five runs before making the third and final out of the inning. Brandon Cashman had the biggest blast of the inning, hitting his team-leading fourth home run of the season over the right field wall for three runs. Sean Patrick added an RBI double and shortstop Eric Eymann added an RBI single to give Illinois a 5-2 lead and chase Behrens from the game in favor of reliever Austin Rhoads.

Illinois added two more off of Rhoads in the bottom of the second. Vince DiMaria and Andy Schutzenhofer led off with back-to-back singles, and an error by IU shortstop Seth Bynum put Dusty Bensko on first and scored DiMaria following Schutzenhofer's single. Drew Davidson subsequently hit a one-out sacrifice fly to center to score Schutzenhofer and open up a 7-2 Illinois lead after two innings.

Ziemba (2-0) earned the win after throwing a complete game seven innings. He allowed two runs on six hits while striking out five. He did not walk a batter and did not allow a run after the first inning. Behrens suffered the loss, falling to 2-1 on the year. He was charged with five runs on five hits in 2/3 innings of work. He walked one and did not strike out a batter.

The second game went scoreless until the top of the third when Indiana scored the first run of the game against Illini starter Jimmy Conroy. Mark Calkins hit a two-out RBI double to score Kenny Marrs and give Indiana a 1-0 lead.

Illinois grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the fourth. Schutzenhofer and Trevor Frederickson led off with back-to-back singles, and after Dusty Bensko sacrificed them to third and second, respectively, Davidson hit his second sac fly in as many games to score Schutzenhofer, and Frederickson came home one batter later when Joe Parenti sent a single up the middle, giving Illinois a 2-1 lead.

Indiana reclaimed the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Seth Bynum hit a two-out, three run home run off reliver Dave Mazurek to give IU a 4-2 lead. Illinois got one back in the bottom of the inning on Trevor Frederickson's second home run of the season, moving the Illini to 4-3 with an inning to play.

That was as lose as Illinois would get, though, as Kevin O'Brien picked up the win, improving to 2-0 on the year, while Ryan Smith earned his fourth save of the year by throwing a scoreless final 1 2/3 innings. Dave Mazurek suffered the loss, falling to 2-1 on the year after allowing three runs in 2 2/3 innings of work.

Illinois returns to action this week, hosting Western Michigan in a pair of game Tuesday and Wednesday at Illinois Field. First pitch Tuesday is scheduled for 6:35 p.m., while Wednesday game is slated to begin at 2:05.