April 25, 2003

Box Score

Evanston, lll. - The University of Illinois baseball team dropped its series opener to Northwestern, 6-5, this afternoon on the campus of Northwestern University. Illinois jumped out to a 5-1 lead but was unable to hang on, eventually falling in the bottom of the 10th inning.

"We didn't hit with men on base and that really hurt us today," Illini head coach Itch Jones said. "We need to come back tomorrow, win some games and start playing to our potential. Ted Rowe did a good job for us, but our relief pitching wasn't able to hold on to the game for us and our offense left 13 men on base."

Illinois jumped to a 2-0 lead right away in the first inning. Eric Eymann led off with a walk, went to second on a sac bunt off the bat of Joe Parenti before Andy Schutzenhofer also drew a walk and Drew Davidson reached on an error to load the bases with one out. After Brandon Cashman struck out, third baseman Chad Frk delivered a single to left that plated both Eymann and Schutzenhofer.

After a scoreless second, Illinois added to its lead in the top of the third. Brandon Cashman reached on a one-out error, and Dusty Bensko blasted a two-out, two-run home run over the centerfield wall. It was his third blast of the season and opened a 4-0 lead for Illinois over NU starter Dan Konecny.

NU added a single run in the bottom of the fourth to close the gap to 4-1 before Dusty Bensko capitalized on a one-out walk to come around and score his second run of the game when T.F. Meagher singled him home from second after he advanced to scoring position on a Chris Robinson single.

But Northwestern cut into the lead in the eighth, plating four runs while chasing Illini starter Ted Rowe in favor of closer Dave Mazurek and tying the game at five.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the 10th. After an Illinois rally in the top half was squealched with runners on first and second, NU's leadoff man reached base in the bottom half when he was hit by a pitch. He immediately went from first to third when a sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown away by Mazurek, and he scored on a wild pitch that ended the game.

Mazurek (3-5) suffered the loss. He allowed two runs on two hits in two innings of work after Illini starter Ted Rowe had allowed only four runs in 7 1/3 innings. NU reliever Chris Hayes earned the win, improving to 1-2 on the year after throwing 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Illinois and Northwestern continue their Big Ten series Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled for a noon start. Sunday's series finale is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch at Rocky Miller Park.

Game Notes: 1. Andy Schutzenhofer scored a run in the first inning, moving him into a tie for sixth place on Illinois' career runs scored list with 176 career runs. 2. Eric Eymann's 10th inning single extended his hitting streak to 14 games, one short of the team season-long for the season (Drew Davidson, 15 games).