Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Illinois
Baseball Wins Game One Against Illinois
4/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 26, 2002
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Northwestern's baseball team opened up a four-game conference series against Illinois at Illinois Field in Champaign Friday night, winning 9-2. The victory improves the Wildcats to 16-19 overall and 7-9 in the Big Ten.
Senior right-hander Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West) set the game's early pace, allowing only four Illini hits in the first seven innings and enjoying a 9-2 lead when he left after the eighth inning. Freshman James Happ (Peru, Ill./St. Bede Academy) relieved Schara, giving up one hit and striking out one in the ninth. It was Happ's 13th appearance of the year. Schara, meanwhile, struck out six and walked one while improving to 3-2 on the year. The Wisconsin native is only 11 punch-outs shy of tying the career strikeout record at Northwestern. Grady Hall struck out 273 hitters between the years 1983-86.
The Wildcats got on the board first, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth. Right fielder Brandon Ackley (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) earned a leadoff walk and advanced to third on two groundouts to second base. Catcher Ken Padgett (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) hit a line drive right back up the box, ricocheting off Illini starter Andy Dickinson's glove for an RBI single. Center fielder David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) was up next, tattooing a first pitch belt-high fastball deep over the right center field fence. It was Gresky's third round-tripper of the season.
In the fourth, NU tacked on a couple more to take a 5-0 lead. First baseman Jason Krynski (Niles, Ill./Niles West) hit a lazy high fly ball double to the left field corner, scoring Josh Lieberman (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) and Ackley. Both Lieberman and Ackley reached on singles.
The 'Cats weren't done, plating two runs in the top of the sixth, prompting Illinois coach "Itch" Jones to make a pitching change. Freshman shortstop Jon Mikrut (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel) led off with a walk and advanced to second on second baseman Eric Roeder's (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) one-out single to center. Both runners came around to score when Lieberman lined a double to the right center field wall, making the score 7-0 Northwestern.
Roeder got things started in the top of the eighth, smacking a single to third and advanced to second on a Haake walk. Lieberman lined a RBI-single to left that was misplayed by the Illinois fielder, allowing Haake to follow Roeder across the plate.
Illinois answered with two of its own in the bottom of the eighth. Schara walked his first hitter of the night, who came around to score on center fielder Brandon Cashman's first triple of the season. Cashman crossed the plate on first baseman Andy Schutzenhofer's single to center.
The 7-9 record moves NU up one spot to seventh in the race for a Big Ten Tournament berth. The top six teams advance to the postseason tournament.
For updated Big Ten baseball standings, you can check the conference website at www.bigten.org.
