Live Blog – B1G Tourney – Round 1 – Illinois

Hoosiers open up post season play

By Carl James @jovian34 May 23rd, 2023 – photo of Charles Schwab Field by Cassady Palmer

Top 9th: Illinois 3, Indiana 4 (FINAL)

Morgan Colopy and Sam Murrison come in as defensive replacements. Whiteaker is struggling with the strike zone. a 4-pitch walk is followed up with a 2-2 fielder’s choice. Whiteaker’s day is done. Brayden Risedorph is in to close the door. Risedorph climbs the ladder for a strikeout. Cerny gets eaten up by a hard ground single to bringing the tying run to the plate. Risedorph gets ahead 1-2 on Comia. The count runs full and Risedorph walks the bases loaded. McDonald chops a ground ball to short. Glasser makes a costly throwing error on a chopper. Two runs score. Tying run on third. A flyout gets Indiana the win!

Bottom 8th: Illinois 1, Indiana 4

Taylor greats new pitcher Tabeling with a single. Brock Tibbitts fouls off several 3-2 pitches to work a walk. Mathison lays down a good sacrifice bunt to get both runners in scoring position. With the infield in, Pyne hits a dribbler ground out that scores Taylor. Jessee hits a single up the middle to add one more insurance run.

Top 8th: Illinois 1, Indiana 2

Whiteaker ends the inning with 4 pitches before I can type anything.

Bottom 7th: Illinois 1, Indiana 2

Glassey is the new Illinois pitcher. Cerny flies out and Serruto draws a one-out walk, but a fielder’s choice and a fly-out make it a quick inning.

Top 7th: Illinois 1, Indiana 2

Whiteaker gets two quick strikes against Doligale, again freezing him with strike three. Then 1-2 swing and miss gets Whiteaker’s fifth strikeout. A groundout makes it a 1-2-3 inning for Whiteaker.

Bottom 6th: Illinois 1, Indiana 2

Constertina’s low slot is working against Hoosier hitters when he is in the strike zone. Two quick outs. Jessee works a lot of pitches but goes down on strikes.

Top 6th: Illinois 1, Indiana 2

Whiteaker gets a strikeout on a fastball looking to start the inning. Jacob Schroeder gets a single on a 3-2 pitch. Whiteaker climbs the ladder on an 0-2 pitch and gets a favorable strikeout call. Caejza also looks at strike 3.

Bottom 5th: Illinois 1, Indiana 2

Cerny rips a one-out double. Peter Serruto rips a single up the middle. Centerfielder Cam McDonald throws past the cut-off man. Not only does Cerny score, but Serruto gets into scoring position. Glasser takes a four-pitch walk and Wenninger’s day is done. Constertina loads the bases by walking Whalen. A ground ball fielder’s choice to first base scores Serruto giving Taylor an RBI.

Top 5th: Illinois 1, Indiana 0

Phillips walks the lead off man, 9-hole hitter Danny Doligale, He then throws two straight balls to Comia while Evan Whiteaker is tossing in the bullpen. Comia rips a ball in the gap to give Illinois the first run of the game. Whiteaker comes intoto pitch and gets a flyout and then comes back from a 3-1 count to get a strikeout. A fly out to foul ground keeps the Hoosiers within one.

Bottom 4th: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Bobby Whalen fights off a pitch into right for a lead off single. Taylor is out on a pop up in foul territory. Tibbitts flies out to left. Mathison rips a 3-2 pitch the other way and Whalen on the run manages to get to third base with two outs. Pyne works a full count as well. He flies out to the warning track in left. Again, all they accomplish is elevating Wenninger’s pitch count which is now at 79 pitches.

Top 4th: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Cerny ⭐ collects a hard hit grounder and throws to Tibbitts for the first out. ⭐Pyne not to be outdone with a great grab at third and ⭐ Tibbitts with an equally great scoop at first. Illinois’ third hard hit ball is stopped by Pyne, but ends up a two-out single. Indiana is clearly playing better defense on Omaha dirt than it did on East Lansing dirt Friday. A flyout to Jessee ends the inning.

Bottom 3rd: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Tyler Cerny with a fanstastic at-bat. Fouls off a couple of full-count pitches before digging out an infield single. Cerny attempts to steal and just fails to avoid the tag for the first out. Peter Serruto bloops a single. Glasser grounds into a 4-6-3 double play allowing Wenninger to face them minimum despite two hits.

Top 3rd: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Freshman righty Ethan Phillips replaces Seiler for the second time through the order. Phillips walks Branden Comia with nobody out. Phillips gets into the zone and gets a couple of fly outs. Phillips gets Camden Janik to fly out as well.

Bottom 2nd: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Indiana batters are hitting a lot of foul balls, elevating Wenninger’s pitch count, but not accomplishing much else. Hoosiers go down 1-2-3.

Top 2nd: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

With two outs a walk and bunt single represent the Illini’s first threat. Seiler brings that to a close with a line out to Hunter Jessee in left. Seiler has now gone one time through the order. Will Dustin Glant keep going with Bigs?

Bottom 1st: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Bobby Whalen gets a one-out single. Devin Taylor fouls off multiple 2-strikes pitches before getting frozen by an inside off-speed offering. A wild pitch gets Whalen to scoring position with two outs. Brock Tibbitts flies out to right to end the inning.

B1G Network reports that Ryan Kraft is not available for Indiana in this Tournament.

Top 1st: Illinois 0, Indiana 0

Ben Seiler gets two quick outs before giving up a single. With the wind blowing in the outfielders are playing relatively shallow. A ground-out ends the top half.

RPI Impact

Indiana is currently number 27 in the NCAA RPI per WarrenNolan.com.

  • Win today: improve to 26th
  • Lose today: fall to 28th

Pregame

Starters

B1G Freshman of The Year Devin Taylor is back in the three-hole. Ben ‘Bigs’ Seiler will get the Hoosiers started on the mound. Senior+ Seiler has impressed out of the bullpen lately. He is capable of deep starts going back to his undergraduate play at Siena, but not something he’s done in Cream and Crimson yet.

Illinois’ Jack Wenninger has been up and down this year. Indiana hit him hard in April, but he pitched a one base-runner, complete game soon after that.

Schedule Update

Iowa defeated Michigan at 2:22pm ET. Expect IU/Illinois first pitch at 3:22pm now.

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