CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois baseball (5-2) opened the 2025 home slate with a 19-8 victory today over Aurora at Illinois Field.
Jack Zebig provided some loud offense in the ballgame, going 2-for-4 with a run, double, grand slam and six RBI. Greg LaChance and Kyle Schupmann also homered in the contest.
The Illini used nine pitchers in the game, with Brayden Mazzacano getting the ball first, making his first-career start, and Reed Gannon picking up his first-career win in relief by tossing a scoreless inning in the fifth.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Spartans took a 1-0 lead their first time up through a sacrifice fly before Jacob Schroeder made it 1-1 in the second with an RBI-single.
Aden O’Donnell and Zach Bates each made their Illini debuts in the second and third inning, respectively, with the duo each working scoreless frames to keep the home team in the game.
Illinois would go on to take a 5-1 lead in the third when LaChance’s two-run homer capped a three-run frame.
Aurora battled back with three in the fourth to make it a one-run game, but a three-run fifth from the Orange and Blue pushed the lead to four at 8-4.
The visitors scored twice to again in the sixth to again cut the lead to one, but Zebig’s grand slam in the bottom half of the frame began to put the game out of reach, as his second home run of the season made it 12-7.
Illinois added two more runs in the…
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