April 14, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. - Hey Illini Fans!

I'm writing to you from Evanston where we just wrapped up a doubleheader sweep of Northwestern to improve to 3-0 on the weekend so far. These wins have been huge for our conference record and with all the cancellations the last couple of weeks we have been moving up in the standings. Game four is tomorrow afternoon and the guys can smell the sweep.

These first three games have all been exciting. On Friday night Tanner Roark led the way with a career-high seven innings pitched and a career-high nine strikeouts. Mike Stankiewicz continued the pitching clinic in game one today with a complete game one-hitter. And Ryan Snowden hit safely in his 24th straight game in game one today to break the school record for a hitting streak. He added two hits in game two to extend his new school record hitting streak to 25 games and counting.

All you Illini fans in the Champaign area will have three additional chances to see the team play at home. Because of all the cancellations we've had so far, there have been three home games added on three consecutive Wednesdays starting this coming Wednesday against Robert Morris. This will be a good opportunity for our pitchers to get some additional work to strengthen the entire staff.

Nothing else to report right now. After the last game against Northwestern tomorrow we'll play at Illinois State on Tuesday and then host Robert Morris Wednesday in the first of those additional games. Next weekend we're at Iowa for another big conference series. The end of that series will mark the end of the first half of the conference season, so it will give us a chance to really take a look at where we stand.

Go Illini!
Michael Schroeder