Illinois baseball began its season last weekend, going 1-2 in a trio of road games at Kansas. 

Friday’s game started out incredibly promising for the Illini, with starting pitcher Cole Kirschsieper coming out hot and allowing just three hits and one run in seven innings of work. When Kirschsieper left the game, the Illini were up 2-1, but the lead quickly turned to a deficit. 

“There’s some things that he’s been challenged with as far as developing his off-speed stuff,” said head coach Dan Hartleb in reference to Kirschsieper. “He and Mark Allen, our pitching coach, have done a good job of progressing with that. He needed to pitch down in the zone more and inside more, and all those things he showed on Friday. He’s made tremendous improvement and worked very hard. He’s got a great grip on what he needs to do and he’s taking the bull by the horns with going out and making those adjustments.”

Ryan Kutt came in to relieve Kirschsieper, but he gave up a walk and a hit to the first two batters he faced. Hartleb was quick with the hook after that, so Alex Vera came in next. He didn’t have much luck himself, giving up two runs before Tommy Green finally came in to help get the Illini out of the tough inning.

Ultimately, the Illini were unable to make up the deficit in the ninth, losing 4-2 when all was said and done. 

Saturday didn’t prove much better for Illinois, with Kansas getting out to a 7-0 lead after just two innings. Needless to say, Hartleb was very frustrated with the eventual 12-1 loss. 

“Saturday was just bad in all aspects,” Hartleb said. “We didn’t field very well. We only had one error, but if you’re realistic about things we had four mistakes that could have been errors. So, we didn’t play well defensively. We only had three hits. And then on the mound we just weren’t good, especially early on.”

Hartleb suggested there would be changes across the lineup going forward, as starter Jack Wenninger only lasted 1 1/3 innings on Saturday, and the Illini were held to just three hits on the day.

Sunday, however, proved to be a positive change of pace for Illinois, with the team finally capturing its first win of the season 7-1. Payton Hutchings drew the pitching start and had his best game as an Illini, going six innings and giving up eight hits and just one run. For reference, Hutchings had an 8.36 ERA last season. 

“He competed just how we knew that he could, which is the thing,” said catcher Jacob Campbell. “We’ve seen it in practice and know that he’s capable of doing that, but for him to go out there and be as composed as he was and just mow their hitters down, get a lot of weak contact out of him. It was really impressive to see early on.” 

Campbell credited Sunday’s win to the mentality of the team, citing the team’s goal to have a strong record this season as a major motivator. 

“I really think it kind of speaks to the mental makeup of our team,” Campbell said. “Last year didn’t really go the way that we wanted to, being just about .500 all year. We never really did flip that switch. But I think this team this year has a really good chance because we have a lot of guys that are just hungry and they want to win. They want to play baseball games. And that’s what it comes down to is when you have guys that are just ready to just be in the fire and go to battle with their bros by their side it’s a different feeling. It was awesome. We needed that win especially to close out the weekend.”

@WesHollenberg

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