April 1, 2003

Box Score

Champaign, Ill. - It took eight innings to get the offense started but when it did the University of Illinois baseball team was able to pull away from Western Michigan for a 5-2 win on a pleasant Tuesday evening at Illinois Field. With the win Illinois improves to 13-5 on the year while Western Michigan falls to 8-12 on the year.

"I thought that Brian Blomquist gave us a great game on the mound," Illini head coach Itch Jones said. "We were finally able to put some runs on the board in the eighth inning against a very good ball team."

Illini starter Brian Blomquist and WMU pitcher Clark Sterley dueled through a scoreless five innings before WMU's Adam Rosales hit a home run, his third of the season, to open a 1-0 lead for the Broncos.

Western Michigan extended its lead in the top of the eighth, plating one run on an RBI single off the bat of Tom Fabrizio, to extend the lead to 2-0.

Illinois, which was no-hit through four innings and one-hit through seven by Sterley, finally rallied in the bottom of the eighth. Eric Eymann got it started with a one-out infield single, and Joe Parenti followed by a walk. T.F. Meagher and Trevor Frederickson then combined to draw a walk off two pitchers, as Sterley was pulled with a 1-0 count and Frederickson came in the game for Meagher and completed the walk off reliever Keith Perez.

Brian Raymond promptly pinch ran for Frederickson, and pinch hitter Trevor Huisinga hit into a run-scoring fielders choice that scored Eymann and brought the score to 2-1. After Andy Schutzenhofer drew a walk to reload the bases, Drew Davidson popped a double to right that scored both Raymond and Huisinga to give Illinois a 3-2 lead. Dusty Bensko added insurance for Illinois as he followed Davidson with a bases-clearing double that extended Illinois' lead to 5-2. By the end of the inning Illinois has sent nine batters to the plate and scored five runs on three hits.

Blomquist earned the win, improving to 1-0 on the year after throwing eight complete innings, allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out four. He did not walk a batter. Dave Mazurek came in to throw a scoreless ninth and earn his third save of the year. WMU starter Clark Sterley suffered the loss, falling to 0-3 on the year after allowing three runs on two hits in 7 1/3 innings of work.

Illinois and Western Michigan conclude their two-game series Wednesday with a single game scheduled for 2:05 p.m.