Illini sophomore catcher Lars Davis hit the first walk-off home run of his baseball career in the bottom of the ninth inning in yesterday afternoon’s game at Illinois Field against St. Xavier, to give the Illini a 6-4 win over the Cougars.

Coming off a big 3-1 weekend series at Minnesota, the Illini allowed the Cougars to hang around throughout the game, and squandered a one run lead in the ninth inning before the Illini came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the ninth, capped off by Davis’ third home run of the season.

“I was just looking for a pitch up to drive,” Davis said. “We had Rohde on first and I was just trying to take the ball to the gap to score him. I actually thought it wasn’t going out and it was just going to the gap, but it just happened that the ball flew out of the park.”

The Illini jumped on the board first with an RBI sacrifice fly to center field by junior designated hitter Chase Kliment in the first inning. Senior first baseman Dave Schultz added to the Illini’s lead in the third inning with an RBI single through the right side of the infield to give Illinois an early 2-0 lead.

St. Xavier managed to claw back in the fifth and six innings to tie the game at 2-2. Illinois regained the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning when Schultz came through with his second RBI of the day on a double to center field.

The Cougars fought back once again in the ninth, scoring twice against Illini junior reliever Jake Toohey to take back the lead 4-3.

Down to the last out, senior Trevor Huisinga kept the Illini alive with a double and then scored the tying run on junior third baseman Mike Rohde’s RBI single. Davis then followed Rohde with his first ever walk-off home run.

“In a game like this we didn’t expect to be down,” Schultz said. “The way we answered back in the ninth inning really shows a lot about our team.”

Illinois used seven pitchers on the afternoon. As a whole, the Illini pitching staff gave up four runs on 14 hits. After blowing the lead in the ninth Toohey ended up picking up the win for the Illini, improving his record to 3-4 on the season.

“We had about three pitchers who struggled,” Hartleb said. “When you get the ball up in the zone you will struggle and the ball is going to be hit hard and a long way. Those guys just have to be more consistent.”

With the win the Illini improved to 24-19 overall and moved to 4-3 in midweek games this season.

Illinois has won nine of its last 12 games heading into the Illini’s final home series this weekend against Big Ten co-leading Michigan (they share the lead with Northwestern).

“We’re all excited for this weekend, especially since it is against Michigan,” Schultz said. “Everybody from the players on the field to the fans are going to be pumped up for this weekend.”