Illinois State belted out 19 hits, including three two-run homeruns, and defeated Louisville 12-6 Sunday at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.
Todd Stein (1-0) picked up the win for Illinois State, as he was masterful in his first start of his senior season. Stein went six innings, and allowed only two hits and one run, both coming from the first two batters of the game.
Illinois State (2-1) got on the board early in the first inning, as freshman Matt Bolt knocked in Jay Molina with a double, making the score 1-0 after the top of the first.
The lead did not last for long however, as Louisville (3-3) leadoff hitter Nick Haley homered to left-center off of Stein to tie the game at one after one inning.
Illinois State was just getting started however, as they would then score in the next three innings. In the second inning, Chris Shepherd doubled and Joe Burke singled to put two on for Illinois State with nobody out. Greg Blaesing then got his first of four hits on the day, as he doubled bringing in Shepherd. Joe Peterson followed up Blaesings double with a two-RBI single, his first hit and RBI as a Redbird, making the score 4-1 after two.
In the third, Matt Bolt was hit by a pitch with one out and one batter later, Shepherd hit his first home run of his career, making the score 5-1 after three.
The Redbirds would continue to pour it on in the fourth as Jeremy Pickrel hit his first home run of 2004, a two-run shot that landed in the upper portion of Cardinal Stadiums right field bleachers, to make the score 8-1.
Illinois State would carry that 8-1 lead into the seventh, before adding four more. Lucas Baughman led off the inning with a pinch-hit single, Blaesing followed with his second double of the game, and Peterson brought them both in with his second two-RB I single of the afternoon. Later in the inning, Molina would hit the third Redbird homerun of the day in the form of a 400+ foot, two-run, moon-shot to leftfield, making the score 12-1 in favor of Illinois State.
The Cardinals would get two runs in the bottom of the seventh of freshman Eric Theisen and one more in the eighth off of Kitt Kopach to make the score 12-4 in favor of Illinois State. They would then get two more in the ninth off of Kyle Zaleski to finish off the scoring at 12-6 in favor of Illinois State
Illinois State now has a week off before they head to Florida next weekend for a week of baseball in the warm weather. The Birds will play six games in the sunshine state, beginning with a game against UConn on March 7 at 1:30 pm CST. That game can be heard on www.wjbc2.com.
