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2007 Final Notes
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Lars Davis gets a high-five from Ryan Hastings after one of Davis' two home runs in the regular-season finale against Michigan State, a game the Illini won 8-7.
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July 30, 2007
Final 2007 Notes in PDF Format
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Illini Line Drives
• Illinois reached the Big Ten Tournament for the third-straight year and the ninth time in the last 12 years.
• Lars Davis became the second-highest position player drafted in Illinois history when he was taken in the third round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Colorado Rockies. Catcher Chris Robinson also was a third-round pick in 2005, but went 12 picks earlier overall. Shawn Roof also was selected during the two-day draft, going to the Detroit Tigers in the 33rd round.
• Davis also was named Big Ten Player of the Year, was a first-team All-Ping! Baseball selection, a second-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball and a third-team ABCA All-American. Those honors made him the first Illini to be named a postseason All-American by three or more organizations since Brett Weber in 1998.
• In addition to Davis being named the Big Ten Player of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten, Tanner Roark was a second-team All-Big Ten selection and Daniel Webb was named the third-team All-Big Ten designated hitter.
• Davis' .400 batting average meant that he also became the first Illinois player to hit .400 or better in 11 years, when Josh Klimek and Craig Marquie both eclipsed the mark in 1996
• Illinois' team batting average of .321 was the third-best in the last 10 years, with the 1998 squad's .347 mark and the team's .338 average in 1999 coming in ahead of this season's. The Illini hit .312 in both 2005 and 2006, and have hit over .300 as a team in eight of the last 10 years.
• The Illini boosted their power numbers toward the end of the season, swatting seven homers in the last eight games. Lars Davis was responsible for four of those bombs, Mike Rohde had two in that span and Nick Stockwell went yard once. Oddly enough, four of those homers - 3 by Davis, 1 by Rohde - came on 0-0 counts, and two were on 2-2 pitches (Rohde, Stockwell).
• Illinois became the Cardiac Kids at the end of the regular season, coming from behind in four of seven wins. Both victories against Michigan State were comebacks, while the Illini's Friday night win over Indiana and the triumph in the second game of the doubleheader with the Hoosiers both were come-from-behind affairs.
• Lars Davis finished the season second on the single-season hits chart with 90, behind Tim Richardson's record of 104. Shawn Roof took over the season and career hit-by-pitch, and season stolen base records, and he also holds the Illinois records for steals and HBP in a Big Ten season. Jake Toohey tied the Illini record for saves in a Big Ten season and finished third on the career saves list, while taking the school record for career saves in Big Ten play. He also is seventh on the career appearances list and tied for fifth on the Big Ten season appearances list. For more record updates, check out page 8.
• Davis had quite a powerful week against Mizzou and Michigan State, smacking four homers and a double in five games for a 1.267 slugging percentage. He drove in seven runs and scored seven on the week, hitting 6-for-15 (.400).
• The Indiana series was memorable for Shawn Roof, who broke both the single-season steals (38) and single-season HBP (20) records, and bettered his own Big Ten season steals (18) and HBP records (12). Against Michigan State, Roof broke Andy Small's career HBP record with his 45th plunking. His 19 steals in Big Ten play tied the record set last season by Michigan's Eric Rose.
• Daniel Webb caught fire after moving to the No. 5 hole in the batting order in the third game at Northwestern, hitting .419 (44-for-109) with 22 RBI, 12 runs, nine doubles and a home run in those 31 games. Mike Rohde also has hit very well since switching with Webb into the No. 4 hole, hitting .349 with 31 RBI, 27 runs, nine doubles, three triples and three homers in that span.
• Ryan Snowden was an incredible lead-off hitter for the Illini this season, hitting .385 with a .429 OBP when he leads off the game. Snowden had 20 hits to start the game and eight first-inning doubles. As the lead-off batter in any inning, Snowden reached base at a .396 clip.
• Tanner Roark was incredible on conference Fridays this season, going 6-1 while allowing just 23 earned runs on 58 hits, 20 walks and 32 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings for a 4.25 ERA. Roark struck out a career-high nine Northwestern hitters in seven innings on April 13 before fanning six Hawkeyes in seven innings on April 20. He finished his second Big Ten campaign 6-1 with a 4.61 ERA and was named second-team All-Big Ten. He was tied for the wins lead in conference games, second in innings pitched (54 2/3) and tied for third in strikeouts (35).
• Jake Toohey had a stellar weekend against Michigan State, earning Big Ten Pitcher of the Week honors by notching a save and a win and factoring in both Illini wins to reach the Big Ten Tournament. Toohey saved the Illinois win on Friday with a four-out performance, then tossed 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief on Sunday to allow the Illini to come back from a 7-0 fifth-inning deficit. Toohey's 3.63 ERA was tops on the Illini among pitchers with 30 or more innings.
• Lars Davis showed why he was deserving of all the honors he received in the regular-season finale. With the Illini trailing 7-3 in the sixth inning and needing a win to make the Big Ten Tournament, Davis blasted a solo homer. One inning later, with Illinois still down, 7-6, Davis ripped a two-run bomb down the right-field line to provide the winning 8-7 margin.
• Davis had an incredible season, hitting .400 for the year and putting together a career-best 19-game hitting streak from March 10-April 14. He bounced back from his streak-busting oh-fer in the doubleheader nightcap at Northwestern by going 4-for-5 in the series finale, then hitting an inside-the-park home run at Illinois State, the first Illini to do so since Brady Ballard circled them all at Indiana in 2000.
• The Fighting Illini finished third in the conference in hitting with a .321 team average in all games. Illinois led the league in steals (109-of-143), was second in runs scored (408) and third in hits (638). The Illini also had the fewest strikeouts (224) in the Big Ten.
• Davis finished third in the Big Ten in hitting in all games at .400, was tied for the league lead in hits (90), tied for third in RBI (56) and fifth in runs (55). Davis led the league in total bases (145), home runs (13) and runners caught stealing (24), and was second in slugging percentage (.644).
• Roof led the Big Ten in stolen bases (40), steal attempts (48) and hit by pitch (22) in all games, Mike Rohde led the league in fielding double plays (59), was tied for second in triples (4) and tied for third in doubles (20). He also finished fifth in RBI with 54. Snowden was second in the league in doubles (21).
• Davis led Illinois with 25 multiple-hit games (16 two-hit, 3 three-hit, 6 four-hit) and 16 multiple-RBI games (8 two-RBI, 8 three-RBI) in 2007. For comparison's sake, Illinois had only nine four-hit games as a team in 2006.
• On May 10, Ryan Hastings and Ryan Snowden were named first team Academic All-District for District 5 by ESPN the Magazine. Hastings, who graduated with a degree in sport management, had a 3.46 GPA, and Snowden, who earned a degree in community health, had a 3.39 GPA.
• Before taking off the week between the Michigan and Indiana series for final exams, Illinois had played an incredible stretch of 22 games in 24 days (4/13-5/6). With no mid-week game following the Michigan series because of finals, the Illini got a break before finishing the regular season with nine games in 10 days.
• Illinois earned an academic honor on April 26 when it was awarded the NCAA's Public Recognition award for recording a multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) score in the top 10 percent of all Division-I baseball teams. The Illini had a multi-year APR score of 981, which was in the 90th-100th percentile of all D-I baseball teams.
• The Orange and Blue continued to bring large crowds to Illinois Field, with 4,100 fans watching the Illini's series with Minnesota, the seventh-largest series crowd in school history. That total also included a total of 2,166 fans on Saturday, the seventh-best crowd in school history. Illinois opened the season strong, as 1,060 fans came to the Illini's first home game, against Indiana State on March 27. Illinois averaged 710 fans over 11 home dates.
For complete final season notes, see the attached PDF file.
