April 17, 2009

Recap |  Box Score

Illinois vs. #23 Minnesota
Postgame Notes
April 17, 2009

1. Illinois moved into a tie for first place with Ohio State after Friday's games, as the Buckeyes posted a 1-0 win at Purdue on Friday. The Illini and OSU have a half-game lead over Minnesota and Indiana, 7-3 to 6-3, in the conference standings.

2. Illinois improved to 22-10 on the season, continuing to rank as the third-best start since 1975. The second-best start was in 1985, when the Illini started 26-9 before losing consecutive games for the first time that season to go to 26-11.

3. The Fighting Illini were incredible with runners on base on Friday, hitting 11-for-23 (.478) and advanced runners in 18 of 26 opportunities. Illinois also went 7-for-14 with two outs, driving in eight two-out RBIs, and had the leadoff hitter reach base in five of eight innings. In all, the Illini had 25 base runners and managed to leave only seven runners on base.

4. Illinois also was very opportunistic on Friday, scoring in both innings in which Minnesota made an error. The Illini scored a run in the second when Chauncy Handran's pickoff attempt at second base went into center field, and put five runs on the board in the fifth when Eric Decker dropped a fly ball in center field that would've kept two runs off the board.

5. Dominic Altobelli fell a triple short of a cycle in Friday's game, doubling in the second, singling in the sixth and homering in the seventh. He also drove in a career-high five runs - all with two outs - to surpass his previous high of four RBIs that he had accomplished three times. Altobelli also hit his 10th double on the year, a team-best.

6. Senior center fielder Joe Bonadonna continued to be a Gopher killer, going 4-for-5 with a walk and two runs on Friday to mark his third-straight multiple-hit game against Minnesota dating back to 2008. For his career, he is 18-for-31 (.581) with four multiple-hit games out of 11 games played versus the Gophers. Bonadonna continued his all-or-nothing 2009 season, as he is now 22-for-38 (.579) when collecting multiple hits in a game and 8-for-79 (.101) when he doesn't.

7. Altobelli, Aaron Johnson and Brandon Wikoff all homered on Friday, marking the second time this season that three Illinois players have homered in the same game (vs. #1 LSU, 3/7). It also was the first time that three different players homered in the same game since May 5, 2008, as Willie Argo collected all three of those homers at LSU earlier this year.

8. Lee Zerrusen continued his strong work on the mound of late on Friday with 2 2/3 shutout innings to earn his first save of the year. He didn't allow a hit to right-handed batters, with runners on base or with two outs. He also threw 28 strikes in 38 pitches (74 percent) and hit 91 mph on the radar gun in the ninth inning, his third inning of work.

9. Zerrusen now has pitched 10 innings in the last week (5 1/3 @ Michigan, 4/11; 2 vs. SIU, 4/15, 2 2/3 vs. Minnesota, 4/17), allowing only two earned runs on 12 hits and three walks with eight strikeouts for a 2.22 ERA in that stretch. He has now pitched 28 2/3 innings in Illinois' last 17 games and 18 2/3 in the last 11 games.

10. Matt Dittman continued his hot streak of late, extending his team-best hitting streak to nine games and going 14-for-33 (.424) in the last nine games with seven RBIs and five runs. He now has three multiple-hit games in the last five contests.

11. Illinois and Minnesota will play a doubleheader on Saturday, the third Big Ten doubleheader the Illini have played in four conference series this season. This is ironic because 2009 is the first year in which the Big Ten is playing a three-game series on the weekend after playing four-game series the previous 28 years (1981-2008).