CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Trent Hammond drove in two runs and Pat McInerney blasted a solo homer Saturday to lead the Illinois baseball team to a 3-1 win over Saint Louis at Illinois Field. The Fighting Illini clinched the series with their second win over the Billikens in as many days and moved back to the .500 mark overall (16-16).
"We found ways to push runs across three different innings," said head coach Dan Hartleb. "It was a tight game, which helps you with confidence. Trent Hammond had two great plays at third base and another two RBIs today."
Hammond had two hits and his second straight multi-RBI game after a career-best four-RBI performance Friday night. Hammond, the nine-hole hitter, combined with eight-hole hitter Adam Walton to go 4 for 7 out of the last two spots in the order.
McInerney's homer came in the fourth and gave starter Doug Hayes (5-2) a 2-0 lead. Hayes went 6.2 innings, while allowing one run on seven hits.
"I thought Doug Hayes did a very good job," said Hartleb. "There were a couple innings where he got in a little bit of a bind but he always came up with a quality pitch."
Charlie Naso and J.D. Nielsen both worked out of the bullpen for the second straight day. Naso left the tying run stranded at third in the seventh before working a five-pitch eighth and Nielsen shut down SLU in the ninth for his third save.
Hogan Miller (3-5) took the loss in 4.0 innings for the Billikens. He allowed six hits and two earned runs before Illinois plated an insurance run on a Hammond single off of Ryan Lefner in the eighth.
Michael Hurwitz extended his hitting streak to eight games with two hits, including a double. He has seven multi-hit games during the run to his batting average to .303.
Illinois will look for the sweep tomorrow at 1 p.m. CT at Illinois Field.
