Illinois Baseball Team Stats

Illinois Softball Team Stats

An early exit from the NCAA tournament has left me a little empty.  After having a football and a basketball team to follow, I just got use to having an Illini team to watch on TV and talk about.  It's around this time of year things seem to die down in the college sports world, but this year things might be a little bit different.

There are a couple of Illini teams that are hitting the ball fields this spring, and both are off to pretty good starts.  Dan Hartleb and the Illini baseball team is 12-4 one the season, and they already have a couple of noteworthy wins over LSU, who was ranked #1 at the time.  The Illini then came to Illinois Field for the home opener, and zipped by Akron with a four game sweep (pun intended).  What’s awesome is how well they are pitching.  Their three starting pitchers have ERA’s of 1.67 (Phil Haig), 2.30 (Ben Reeser), and 3.13 (Aaron Martin).  I don’t know if these guys can keep up these impressive numbers but if they can, 12-4 is only the beginning.

Terri Sullivan and the Illini Softball team are also off to a good start with a 16-7 record.  They just opened up their Big Ten season last weekend, and they completed a 2-0 sweep of the Penn State Nittany Lions.  This team has had some pretty solid bats over the last couple of years, but it looks like the pitching is starting to get on track, thanks to the arm of a freshman.  Monica Perry has an 11-5 record with a 3.82 ERA.  She has pitched a majority of the innings this season, so her future looks very bright. 

It looks like both of these teams will competing for Big Ten titles in their respective sports, so get out there and support those Illini.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll see me out there.

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