Team Illinois knocked off Pennsylvania 5-3 to improve to 2-1, landing a spot in the Gold bracket. 

Jack Postma (Barrington, 2028) was lights out on the mound for Illinois, twirling four shutout innings while only surrendering one hit, no runs and striking out two.

The bats came alive in the bottom of the third inning, as James Sobkowiak (Downers Grove South, 2028) delivered a line drive single to center, scoring Ryan Pipkins (Champaign Central, 2028) who walked earlier in the frame to make it 1-0. The following inning saw two more runs come across, as Jack McNamara (Brother Rice, 2028) walked and later scored on an error, followed by an RBI single from Anderson Kaufmann (Alton, 2028) to score Carver Cohn (McHenry, 2028) who singled earlier, making it 3-0 at the time. 

The boys added some insurance in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double down the right field line from Cole Clower (Minooka, 2028), scoring both Payton Archibald (Charleston, 2028) who singled and Lucas Sloan (Olympia, 2028) who was hit by a pitch, making it 5-0 at the time. 

Pipkins was first out of the ‘pen for Illinois, firing two shutout innings with just one hit allowed and two strikeouts. 

Illinois will start bracket play Sunday morning at 8:00 am against Oklahoma. 

Related content