Postgame Notes: Illinois 11, Michigan 5
4/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
In other Big Ten play Sunday, sweeps were in order as Ohio State beat Michigan State, 6-1, Minnesota swept Northwestern with a 6-4 win, and Indiana beat Iowa, 8-4. Minnesota and IU still share first place with 6-2 records with Illinois and OSU tied for third at 6-3, and Purdue is fifth at 5-3. MSU enters the series with Michigan next week (April 17-19) in eighth place (3-6) with Iowa (2-7) in ninth and Northwestern (1-7) in 10th.
Michigan has lost back-to-back Big Ten series for this first time since the 2005 season after dropping two of three games to both Penn State (April 4-5) and Illinois (April 10-12). In 2005, the Wolverines started 0-4 to open conference play at Minnesota and went 1-3 against Iowa in the home-opening series. The losses to Minnesota and Iowa in 2005 also mark the last time the Wolverines lost two conference series in a season.
Sunday's loss to Illinois drops U-M to 4-5 in Big Ten play, marking the first time the Wolverines have been under .500 in conference action since a 3-4 mark on April 8, 2006. U-M went 1-3 vs. Northwestern to open that season and then took three of four at Minnesota to move the record to 4-4 before winning the Big Ten championship with a 23-9 record.
Junior 1B Mike Dufek was 2-for-4 with a double, a homer and all four RBI on Sunday vs. Illinois. In fact, he accounted for all five Wolverine runs as the fifth scored on a Dufek double-play grounder that does not count as an official RBI. Dufek gave U-M a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run double and tied the game at 5-5 in the fifth inning with his two-run homer. Dufek, who is fourth on the team in hitting at .331 (42-for-127), leads the Wolverines in both doubles (16) and home runs (10) and ranks second with 35 RBI. Dufek, who owns a six-game hitting streak, has hits in 22 of his last 23 games.
Sophomore CF Ryan LaMarre, who leads the Wolverines with a .385 (45-for-117) average in overall action and is .467 (14-for-3) in Big Ten play, continued his excellent series against Illinois on Sunday, going 2-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch. LaMarre was 4-for-6 with four walks, two sac flies, five runs scored and three RBI against the Fighting Illini, and he reached base 10 times in the series. LaMarre extends his current team-leading hitting streak to seven games and added his team-leading 15th multi-hit game.
Senior OF Kenny Fellows was 2-for-3 with a walk vs. Illinois on Sunday for his 10th multi-hit game for the season. Fellows is second on the team in hitting at .345 (40-for-116) and is hitting .324 in Big Ten play.
Junior/sophomore SS Anthony Toth was 1-for-4 vs. Illinois on Sunday. Toth, who is hitting .321 (36-for-112), has hits in 16 of his last 18 games.
Senior co-captain 2B Kevin Cislo was 1-for-5 on Sunday vs. Illinois as he moved his overall batting average to .339 (40-for-118), which ranks third on the team. Cislo, who is second on the team, hitting .371 (13-for-35) in Big Ten play, leads the team with 39 runs scored and 23 walks.
Junior OF/RHP Alan Oaks worked four innings on the mound after stating the game in rightfield. Oaks, who had pitched four innings in his career prior to Sunday's action, took the loss, allowing an unearned run in the seventh inning to snap the 5-5 tie, and he faced four batters in the eighth inning and they all scored. He allowed nine hits for the five runs, four earned, and he recorded two strikeouts.
Senior co-captain Tim Kalczynski was 1-for-4 to extend his career-best hitting streak to four games.
