Illinois tees off for eight runs in the first three innings, cruises to 10-3 win
CHAMPAIGN, Illinois — Orange and blue apparel blanketed an over-capacity crowd of 3,398 at Illinois Field Friday night. Fans entering the stadium within a half hour of the first pitch were hard-pressed to find anything other than standing-only viewing.
But even for those who came early enough, they probably didn’t stay seated very long.
The round one NCAA Champaign regional game between No. 1 Illinois and No. 4 Ohio featured tons of scoring, most of it in the first three innings, ending in a 10-3 victory for the Fighting Illini.
For every run Ohio (36-20) scored, Illinois was able to answer — and then some. Ohio scored a single run in the top half of three separate innings, but each time Illinois had at least one run of its own in response.
“If you don’t (execute pitches), they’re going to hurt you and they did today,” Ohio coach Rob Smith said. “They put some really, really good swings on us.”
Both teams scored once in the first inning before Ohio jumped back on top in the second, when junior third baseman John Adryan smoked a hanging curveball from Illinois starter Kevin Duchene out of the park to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.
Duchene, who entered the game with a 1.30 ERA, would settle down and give up just five hits and one run over the final seven innings en route to a complete game win.
“He really battled just to throw strikes at times, but he came up with key pitches at the right time,” Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said. “His mentality is just always finding ways to win.”
Ohio’s starter, junior righty Jake Miller, gave up five runs in the bottom half of the second inning on five hits and a walk to give Illinois a 6-2 lead, which they would hold for the remainder of the game. Miller finished his night with two innings pitched and gave up six earned runs on six hits and two walks.
Big 10 Player of the Year David Kerian highlighted the second inning for the Illini with a three-run home run.
After threatening overhead for most of the first two innings, the skies opened up in the third and the teams left the field for a 10-minute rain delay. By the time play resumed, the sky was calm and no significant gusts of wind blew the rest of the game.
Under different circumstances, Kerian’s home run could’ve been merely a long flyout. Luck was against Ohio, however, and his blast over the 330-foot wall in right field may have been the difference in the game.
“I wish we would’ve hit that delay prior to that bottom of the second and get that game under control as far as weather,” Smith said. “That’s part of playing an outdoor sport — you have to contend with the elements.”
Giving up a five-run inning is bound to slow down any team’s gusto, but sophomore outfielder Mitch Longo contested that Ohio was locked in to a battle back mentality after the disastrous second inning.
“We’ve come back by nine runs in an inning before,” Longo said in reference to the 10-run ninth inning Ohio had against UNC Asheville in the season opener this year back in February. “We’re more than capable of putting up runs.”
On Friday, Ohio just wasn’t able to do enough offensively to keep up with Illinois (48-8-1). The Illini scored twice more in the third inning, taking an 8-2 lead just a third of the way through the game, and cruised from there.
With their backs now against the wall in this double-elimination tournament, the Bobcats are confident they can put Friday’s loss behind them and find more success on the field.
“We’ve been put in this position, the underdog, and we’ve faced adversity all year so I think we’re going to handle it well,” Miller said, “and if we can get a starter to get into a game a little better than I did, then there’s no doubt in my mind that we can win this regional.”
Ohio will play Wright State (41-16) — the region’s No. 3 seed — at 1 p.m. EST Saturday. Sophomore Jake Rudnicki (3-4, 5.79 ERA) will get the start for Ohio.
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