ARUBA -- Branden Comia and Michael Michalak each had three hits and a homer to lead the Illinois baseball team to a 6-2 win over Aruba at Winston Stadium. The Aruba team is made up of select national-team level players. 

Comia gave Illinois a 3-2 lead with a no-doubt home run to left field in the third inning and Illinois never trailed from that point. Michael Michalak added his solo homer in the fifth to pad the lead. Comia drove in three runs, Michalak had two RBIs and Michael Massey added an insurance run on an RBI double in the ninth.

The Illini pitching kept Aruba off-balance all day, as three pitchers combined to shut out the islanders after second inning. Ty Weber started and battled to give Illinois four innings, while allowing only two runs on one hit. Tyler Engel (2.0 IP, 1 H), Josh Garner (2.0 IP, 0 H) and Garrett Acton (1.0 IP, 1 H) threw scoreless outings out of the bullpen.

Illinois has a Thanksgiving lunch planned for Thursday afternoon followed by Game 2 of the series at 5:45 p.m. CT. All games of the series are being broadcast on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/guia.deportivo in the native language of Papiamento.

Troike 2-4, BB
McDonald 0-4, BB
Massey 1-4, 2B, RBI, BB, K
Michalak 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, K
Yalowitz 0-5, 3 K
Dodge 0-4, K
Van Scoy 0-4
Korte 1-2, HBP
Comia 3-4, 2B, 2-R HR, 3 RBI, SB
----
Sarver 0-0, BB
Dyke 0-1

Weber 4.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 1 K
Engel 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Garner 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Action 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K

Notes
• Attendance: 107
• Temperature: 86?
• Illinois left their hotel in Curaçao at 4:30 a.m. local time and landed in Aruba around 8:30 a.m. local time.
• Aruba played a Harry Caray version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.