Illinois started its 2018 baseball season Sunday with a doubleheader split of South Dakota State and Austin Peay at Saint Louis University. 

 

Illinois opened the day with a 5-2 win over South Dakota State behind a two-hit, three-RBI effort from Ben Troike and a four-inning save by Andy Fisher. Troike started the scoring in the second inning with a two-out, two-strike bases-clearing single and Illinois never looked back.

 

Doran Turchin added a solo homer and Ryan Haff drove in an insurance run on a squeeze play, as six Illini combined for seven hits.

 

Sean Leland (1-0) picked up his first win in an Illinois uniform after getting one out in the fifth to work the Illini out of a jam. Fisher did the rest of the work, as the two newcomers combined to go 4 1/3 innings without allowing a run. Ty Weber pitched the first 4 2/3, allowing two runs on four hits.

 

Austin Peay's Brandon Vial shut out Illinois for the first 7 1/3 innings of Sunday's second game. Illinois had five hits and went 0-11 with runners on base.

 

The Illini pitched well with Cyrillo Watson (4.0 IP, 2 R) and Quinn Snarskis (3.1 IP, 0 R) combining to go 7 1/3 strong innings, but the bats never came around.

 

Illinois faces Coastal Carolina (twice), West Virginia and VCU next weekend in Conway, South Carolina.

 

The Illini were oringally scheduled to head to Texas but because of weather in Chicago, the flight to Texas was canceled and Illinois made last minute arrangements to head to St. Louis. A Saturday game was canceled before the Illini finally opened the season Sunday.