March 2, 2007

Box Score

EDINBURG, Texas - Illinois set new season highs in runs and hits as the Fighting Illini blew away Sam Houston State in their first game at the Al Ogletree Classic, 14-5. Junior catcher Lars Davis led the 15-hit attack with a 4-for-5 effort that included a triple, three runs and two RBI. Sophomore Scott Shaw picked up the win after a solid five-inning outing.

"This is a good win over one of the top coaches in the country, who has taken on the responsibility of rebuilding this Sam Houston program," Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said. "One of the keys tonight was that we used our team speed throughout the game to take the extra base, and that resulted in a lot of runs."

After Shaw was touched for a run in each of the second and third innings, the Illini got on the board in the bottom of the third. Davis led off with a towering shot over the centerfielder's head that fell in for a triple and scored on second baseman Ryan Hastings' sacrifice fly to left-center. Centerfielder Kyle Hudson reached on an infield hit, stole second and scored when the third baseman muffed leftfielder Ryan Snowden's grounder. One out later, right-fielder Daniel Webb laced a single to center, driving in Snowden from second and posting the Illini to a 3-2 lead.

"Our starting pitching was quality tonight, which allowed us to figure out their starter," Hartleb said. "Scott Shaw showed good composure after a rough start last week and went out tonight to show us that he deserves to be toward the front of our rotation."

Illinois picked up where it left off in the fourth inning, stringing together three consecutive singles from DH Michael Giller, shortstop Shawn Roof and Davis, with Davis driving in Giller from second and both Roof and Davis advancing a base on a fielding error by the right-fielder. Hastings reached base when the second baseman threw home on his grounder, but didn't get Roof at the plate. Next, Hudson chopped a ball back up the middle on which Hastings was forced out at second, but Davis scored to push the Illini lead to 6-2.

In what would be his last inning on the mound, Shaw set the Bearkats down in order, finishing his night with five innings of work, two runs - both earned - on four hits, two walks and four strikeouts. Tanner Roark entered in relief and got out of a jam created by two errors sandwiched around a base hit by inducing a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.

In the sixth, the Illini roughed up the SHSU staff to the tune of six runs. With one out, Davis shot a single through the right side and Hastings did the same. Hudson walked to load the bases and Snowden drove in Davis with a sacrifice fly. Wikoff was hit by a pitch to reload the bases and all three runners scored when the Bearkat centerfielder a shortstop collided on Webb's high pop up and the ball squirted free. With Webb on second, Rohde hit a grounder to first that the first baseman gloved but the ball flew toward second base as he scooped it, allowing Webb to score and Rohde to end up on second. Giller followed with a double to left-center, plating Rohde and pushing the Illini lead to 12-2.

"The other key was that we kept tacking on runs after we got ahead," Hartleb said. "We scored in five innings tonight, which almost ties the six inning we scored in over three games last weekend."

The Bearkats added three in the seventh after an Illinois error and back-to-back hits, but Roark pitched out of the inning and tossed a scoreless eighth. The Illini added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings and Brian Long pitched a scoreless ninth for the 14-5 win.

Other strong performances for the Orange and Blue included a 2-for-3 outing by Hudson, who also scored two runs, drove in one and stole a base. Hastings went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs, and Giller was 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run.

The Illini return to action on Saturday against the host Texas-Pan American Broncs at 7 p.m. Right-hander Mike Stankiewicz will take the hill for Illinois while Josh Wymer will start for UTPA.