Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan met for the first time in 11 years on Wednesday night at Jack Horenberger Field. In the first ever Horenberger-Bass Classic, IWU defended its home turf, as they defeated Illinois State 9-5.
I have to give all the credit to Illinois Wesleyan, said ISU head coach Jim Brownlee. They played like they can play and deserved to win. We played like we didnt want to be here.
Taking the loss for Illinois State (11-21, 5-11) was senior Todd Stein. Stein (3-3) went two innings, allowing seven hits and four earned runs with three strikeouts. Picking up the win for Illinois Wesleyan (17-10) was Rob Blumberg, who moves to 4-0 on the year.
Illinois State got on the board first, when freshman Matt Bolt hit a sac fly to center to score Jeremy Pickrel and make it 1-0 Birds after the top of the first.
IWU would respond in a big way in the third, when they put up five runs in the frame. The big blow came off the bat of Nick Chilczenkoski, who hit a three-run homer to right center field.
Wesleyan would get two more in the fourth to make it 7-1 before Illinois State was able to put any runs up in the eighth. Bolt knocked in his second run of the game and Jay Molina followed with a double that scored Bolt, who knocked the ball out of the catchers mit at home.
IWU would get two in the bottom of the eighth to make it 9-3 and ISU would come back with two in the top of the ninth. Pickrel and Whitney each had RBIs, to make the final 9-5.
I will always play this game, said Brownlee. I will just have to find some players that want to play in it. Its such a great event for the community and they did a wonderful job supporting it. I just feel bad that they had to see our guys give such a poor performance.
Illinois State will be back in action on Friday, when they open up a three-game series in Chicago against UIC. Fridays first pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
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