Spring is the season of new life, wildflowers and baseball. It arrived early in east-central Illinois, and the Illini (5-2) used the near 60-degree temperature on Tuesday. Because of the nice weather, they scrambled to add an impromptu game to the schedule.
“As we got a little bit later in the game on Sunday, I had our ops girl (Allyson O’Herron) start looking to see who may be available,” said head coach Dan Hartleb. “By Monday morning, we found a team.”
That team was the Aurora Spartans (0-2), a Division III school Illinois hadn’t played in nearly 40 years.
In the earliest outdoor home opener in program history, Illinois won 19-8. However, the game was never about the final score; it helped players get into game situations before a grueling weekend.
Practice makes perfect
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Hartleb’s game plan was simple: Give players, especially pitchers, who have seldom seen the field this season, an opportunity to get into a real game.
“(The players) practice all year to play, and so to just come out and have the opportunity to play a different color uniform and not have to practice today, I think guys enjoyed that more,” Hartleb said. “It allowed us to get a number of pitchers on the mound that haven’t thrown yet, and that’s something I wanted to see: how guys would perform and how they react.”
That number of pitchers was nine, with a new one appearing each inning. Hartleb said this pitching parade was also by design.
“I had it mapped out a little bit,” Hartleb said. “That’s why we added the game; I need to get some guys out there that we haven’t seen yet.”
The nine pitchers included freshman left-hander Brayden Mazzacano, who started the game and took two at-bats. Mazzacano is listed as an outfielder on the roster, but Hartleb said the lefty has a future in pitching, too.
“He’s a legitimate two-way player,” Hartleb said. “We want to get him on the mound; young guy with really good talent, both offensively and from a pitching standpoint. He’s got a very, very bright future.”
Three more left-handers who stood out on the mound were senior Evan Clark, sophomore Zach Bates and redshirt junior Reed Gannon.
Clark had the most productive day of the trio. He struck out the side in the eighth inning using three plus-pitches: a fastball that touched 90 mph, a sharp slider and a changeup over 10 mph slower than his fastball.
Bates recorded a clean inning with a pair of strikeouts, while Gannon earned his first collegiate win after a nine-pitch fifth.
New year, new approach
Illinois made its money with the long ball last year. However, after losing some of that power over the offseason, the team has adopted a noticeably more patient approach at the plate.
“We’ve been doing a good job commanding the strike zone,” Hartleb said. “We’ve taken walks and hit-by-pitches, and we’ve really done a good job producing after that.”
The Illini drew 11 walks last night. Redshirt sophomore infielder Kyle Schupmann recorded three of them. He reached base five times on Tuesday and slugged a home run in the eighth.
Sophomore outfielder Cameron Chee-Aloy went 0-2 but still recorded five stolen bases, a new program record. The Canadian registered a walk, hit-by-pitch and fielder’s choice before wreaking havoc on the basepaths.
Even with this small-ball style, the big bats still produced.
Junior infielder Jack Zebig launched a grand slam amid his six RBI performance. Similarly, junior infielder Greg LaChance went 3-3 with a homer of his own.
Beyond the final score, the results were encouraging, but the schedule immediately gets tougher. Illinois plays Texas Tech, Washington and Texas this weekend in Las Vegas.
@BrendanGallian
