BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana evened the series against the Illinois baseball team with a 3-1 victory Saturday over the Fighting Illini at Bart Kaufman Field. Illinois received another quality pitching performance from starter Doug Hayes and reliever Cole Bellair in the loss.
"I thought we pitched well," said head coach Dan Hartleb. "Doug Hayes gave us a chance to win and we got out of some big spots."
Illinois (26-21, 10-10 Big Ten) forced Indiana to go 2 for 14 with runners on and 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. Hayes (6-5) allowed three runs on 10 hits in 6.0 innings before Cole Bellair retired six of the seven batters he faced.
Indiana (30-18, 14-6 Big Ten) scored single tallies in the third, fifth and seventh innings, but it could have been more if not for some heads up defensive plays by the Illini. Jason Goldstein pounced on a squeeze bunt and tagged a runner trying to score in the fourth inning and 6-4-3 double play got the Illini out of a one-out jam in the sixth.
Illinois swung the bats well in the first inning, when they jumped to a 1-0 lead on Pat McInerney's two-strike single through the right side. That drove home Michael Hurwitz, who had doubled and moved to third on a single by Goldstein. The Illini's first four hitters accounted for three hits in the first inning, the same number the team combined for the rest of the game.
Caleb Baragar (4-3) shut down the Illinois bats in 7.0 innings of work. After allowing three hits in the first, he surrendered just two in his final 6.0 frames. Baragar struck out three before Jake Kelzer struck out four while allowing one hit in 2.0 innings to earn his fourth save.
Indiana was led by Craig Dedelow, who had three hits, and Logan Sowers, who hit his eighth homer of the season and added another run on a sac fly.
Goldstein had half of the Illini's six hits in his seventh three-hit game of the season, as Indiana outhit Illinois, 11-6. Hurwitz extended his reached base streak to 26 games.
The rubber match of the three-game series is scheduled for Sunday at 12:05 p.m. CT. Andrew Mamlic is slated to make his first career Big Ten start for Illinois.
