Scott Bialobreski went 2-for-3 with a homer, four runs scored and three RBI as the Illinois State baseball team jumped all over Illinois for a 14-6 victory Tuesday night at Illinois Field in Champaign.
Illinois State improves to 13-22 overall, while the Fighting Illini fall to 20-15 on the season. Illinois used six different pitchers in the game as the Redbirds scattered 14 hits in the game compared to eight for the Fighting Illini.
I dont know if we brought our A-game tonight, but I know we brought our A-bats, said Illinois State head coach Jim Brownlee. It is good when you are able to play like we did tonight. It was a great win. Todd (Stein) pitched extremely well tonight and put together a nice game.
A two-out, RBI single to left field by Brandon Cashman put the Fighting Illini ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning, but Jake Blair answered for the Redbirds in the top of the second crushing a two-run homer over the right field wall to give Illinois State the lead, 2-1. Back-to-back singles by Scott Bialobreski and Bob McNamara respectively gave the Birds another run in the top of the second after Bialobreski reached second on a wild pitch by Illinois starter Jimmy Conroy to give Illinois State a 3-1 advantage.
Bialobreski sent a shot over the centerfield wall in the top of the third inning for his fifth home run of the season to put the Birds up 5-1. The hot Redbird hitting continued in the fourth inning as Nate Whitney opened the side up with a triple to right-center followed by an RBI double down the right field line by Jon Peacock. A big two-out single to center field by Lance McMillan plated two more Birds and gave Illinois State an 8-1 advantage heading into the bottom of the fourth.
Jeremy Pickrel helped put two more runs on the board for the Redbirds in the top of the fifth when he hit a two-out, two RBI single to right field that plated Bialobreski and McNamara respectively. Illinois cut two runs off the Redbirds lead in the bottom of the fifth off a fielding error by shortstop Jeremy Accardo and a wild pitch by Illinois State starter Todd Stein.
Illinois got two more runs in the bottom of the sixth with three hits, including a double by Eric Eymann, to continue to narrow the Illinois State lead to five, 10-5. However after a scoreless seventh inning for both teams, the Redbirds came alive again in the top of the eighth with four runs off of two singles, two walks and several wild pitches off of Illini reliever Andy Sigerich to take a 14-5 lead into the ninth inning.
Illinois plated one more run in the bottom of the ninth, but the damage was already done as the Redbirds walked away with the win with closer Jeremy Accardo ending the game with a big strikeout.
Illinois State heads to Cedar Falls, Iowa, Friday for a four-game series against Northern Iowa set to begin at 7 p.m. Saturdays doubleheader will start at 2 p.m., while Sundays finale begins at 1 p.m. All four games will be available on WJBCs webcast.
