A win for the Illinois varsity baseball team on Saturday meant no Sunday practice. The alumni didn't even need aluminum bats to force a Sunday morning practice for their Saturday afternoon opponent.

The alumni used wooden bats to win Saturday's game against the Illinois varsity baseball team by an 11-3 score.

"It just showed that the pro ball guys can hit a lot," said senior third baseman Chad Frk. "They put up an eight spot on us and we just couldn't come back from it. Other than that, I don't think that we did horribly bad. There's definitely things we need to work on and get better at before the spring."

The alumni's "eight spot" resulted from eight of the first nine batters scoring for the alumni, including the starting pitcher, 2001 and 2002 All-American Drew Dickinson.

"They have some things they need to work out," said alumni centerfielder Brandon Cashman. "It's still early; they've got six months before the season starts. Guys are coming back from long summer seasons and just got done playing in the spring. Right now's kind of a hard time, but they'll come around. They'll look good."

Cashman, a member of the Texas Rangers' Single A team, batted 2-for-3 while getting both of his hits during the first inning. Illinois brought a new pitcher in for the second inning and the alumni's scoring pace came to a stop. Senior Tim Gorski pitched a perfect second inning and faced only seven batters during the second and third innings.

"I was just really confident going up there and throwing strikes," Gorski said. "After the first inning, I was kind of a little cautious about what was going on seeing nine hits in the first inning. I was just going up there trying to hit my spots and throw pitches for strikes. Let 'em hit and put 'em in play. That's basically what I was going to do."

The strategy worked against the majority of the batters Gorski faced, but alumni catcher Patrick Arlis decided the home run derby wasn't going to just take place during the pregame. Arlis fouled the first pitch of the fourth inning back toward the visitor's dugout. When catcher Chris Robinson couldn't make a play on the ball, Arlis claimed a second life. Arlis belted a shot toward the left field scoreboard. Illinois leftfield Robert Sullivan climbed the fence, but Sullivan's effort could not keep Arlis' hit inside Illinois Field. On Gorski's lone mistake of the game, Illinois head coach Itch Jones found room for improvement.

"There was a pop fly hit that should have been caught," Jones said. "We didn't go get the ball and it fell, and you know Arlis hit a home run off of it. That's one, the catcher's got to get over and catch the pop up and get himself where he belongs. Two, after a play like that, the pitcher's got to come back and get the guy out and not take what should have been an out and then give up a home run off of it."

In the fourth inning, Frk tried to match Arlis' power, but Frk's hit didn't go down the leftfield line. Frk's long hit went straight toward centerfield.

"I knew I hit it to the deepest part," Frk said. "That's usually my flaw. I'm sort of used to hitting it off the warning track or off the wall or something."

Frk's hit bounced off the wall allowing Frk to scramble to third base with a triple. The hit was one of only two extra base hits for the Illini on Saturday.

Although the Illini didn't win and players never enjoy losing, the game's intentions were for the alumni to enjoy the Champaign-Urbana campus again.

"It's great to be back out here and playing against some old teammates and the guys that are here now," said Mets triple 'A' player Chris Basak. "That's what this game is all about, is going out and having a good time. We were able to come out with the win, but overall I'm just having a great time."

Home Run Derby

Though Arlis won the in-game home run derby, the home run competition before the game came down to finalists Craig Marquie and Cashman. Both Marquie and Cashman hit seven home runs during the first round to beat out eight other alumni competitors.

Cashman's first two swings of the finals sailed over the left field wall, but then he followed with five consecutive swings that Illinois Field contained. Marquie looked to be duplicating Cashman by also going over the left field wall with his first two swings.

But Marquie decided the older buck would win as he hit the contest-winning home run on the next swing.

"It was disappointing," Cashman said. "I'm a little disappointed in the second round performance, but it was a good time. He came up clutch with the walk-off home run on the last swing. It was pretty neat."