By Nathan DeHaan
Illinois baseball is finally back in action after a road trip to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where they played their first games of the 2020 regular season. The Illini were able to secure a victory in their first game, a 3-2 win over Milwaukee, but dropped their other two contests, suffering a 10-2 loss against Seton Hall and a 5-3 loss to #18 Wake Forest. This opening weekend marks the beginning of the 141st season in the program’s history.
The weekend got off to a rough start when the team initially tried to fly out of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday afternoon, but the harsh weather conditions caused their flights to be canceled and their opening game against Milwaukee to be postponed. Eventually, the Illini were able to get spots on a flight out of O’Hare at 12:24 am Friday morning.
In the season opener, the Illini were led by two of their junior transfers by way of a 2-run home run from Nathan Aide in his first career Illinois at-bat and Alex Steinbach, who drove Aide in later on in the game. Illinois never trailed and starting pitcher Ty Webber scattered four hits and only one run in six innings pitched.
Illinois Head Coach Dan Hartleb had high praise for the senior pitcher after the game, saying “That’s what we need him to do. Not only for the win, but we need the young guys to watch somebody be very efficient. We thought we could get him for four innings but he was able to extend himself because of his efficiency.”
Against Seton Hall, Illinois jumped out to a hot start with RBIs in each of the first two innings and 5 shutout innings from starter Ty Rybarczyk, but the Illini relief pitchers couldn’t keep the Pirates’ bats quiet. Seton Hall walks away victorious 10-2 after scoring nine runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
On Sunday, the Illini looked to get back on track against the weekend’s hosts, Wake Forest. Things looked good for Illinois right from the first pitch, which center fielder Taylor Jackson sent 405 for a leadoff home run, but Wake Forest responded with three runs of their own in the second inning and never looked back, beating the Illini 5-3.
The Illinois bats were quiet, only finding a way to get four base hits on Sunday, but Hartleb believes that will change in the near future.
“I think you’ll see great improvement from this weekend to next weekend from this team,” said Hartleb. “Moving forward this is going to help us improve.”
Illinois (1-2) will be in action again this coming weekend against Western Carolina, Coastal Carolina and West Virginia.