Illinois Fighting Illini News

Baseball

After having their 27-game win streak snapped by Maryland, the Illini bounced back in a big way on Friday by defeating Michigan State 2-0 in an elimination game. Senior pitcher John Kravetz tossed his first career complete game shutout while giving up just six hits to the Spartans.

Next up for the Illini (47-7-1) No. 3 seed Michigan (35-23) on Saturday afternoon at 1:00pm CT. You can catch the game live on the Big Ten Network.

Tyler Jay

Tyler Jay was named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award--which is given to the nation's top amateur player. You can click here to cast your vote for Jay.

Speaking of Jay, Baseball America's John Manuel has the junior LHP going No. 1 overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks in his latest MLB Draft projection.

1. Diamondbacks

In the print edition of Baseball America, I went with Arizona making a deal here and gave it Georgia prep catcher Tyler Stephenson, after having one front-office evaluator compare him to Wil Myers. But we’re sticking with a college pitcher; we’re just changing the pitcher. Jay has had six-inning outings, he’s had weekends with multiple appearances, and he built a strong track record last summer with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team. He would be an unusual No. 1 overall pick, but this is an unusual draft class.

Selection: Tyler Jay, LHP, Illinois

Men's Tennis

Jared Hiltzik earned All-American status by advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Singles Championships on Thursday.

The No. 4 Fighting Illini also made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the team bracket before being eliminated by North Carolina last week.

Lunchtime Links

2015 Illinois Fighting Illini Football Preview - SBNation
If you ignore the bad vibes, Tim Beckman and Illinois have some things going for them, but it's going to take a couple of breaks for Beckman to survive and the Illini to thrive in 2015.

How many wins do these HOT SEAT coaches need in 2015? - SBNation
I told SB Nation's Pete Volk that 6 wins is the magic number for Tim Beckman.

2015 Eastern Conference Finals: Cleveland wins 94-82 over Atlanta - SBNation
The Cavaliers were missing two of their Big 3, but just LeBron was enough to beat the Hawks.

2015 Eastern Conference Finals: New York wins 5-1 over Tampa Bay - SBNation
New York evened the series with a huge win on Friday.

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