Illinois senior pitcher Ben Reeser sat behind home plate on Saturday and watched LSU’s offense explode for seven home runs in the Tigers’ 22-10 win. But with his turn on the mound on Sunday, Reeser extinguished LSU’s hot offense and pitched eight and two-thirds innings and allowed two runs in a 6-2 Fighting Illini win.”I was paying attention to what pitches we were throwing and what they were doing to them,” Reeser said. “One thing I did see is that our guys were not throwing a lot of changeups, so that was my gameplan today.”Reeser entered the ninth inning having allowed just three hits.The Tigers got a pair of runs off the Illinois senior in the final inning, but LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Reeser had his offense off balance all game.”He was phenominal,” said Mainieri. “He probably threw 75 percent changeups and our guys just never really could make an adjustment to it.” Illinois struck first for the third-straight game and plated two runs in the top of the third inning off LSU sophomore pitcher Austin Ross.Freshman second baseman Josh Parr led off the inning for the Fighting Illini with an infield single. Parr advanced to third base on a wild pickoff attempt by Ross and scored on an infield hit by senior centerfielder Joe Bonadonna.The Illini plated a run later in the inning on an RBI single by sophomore designated hitter Casey McMurray.Illinois pushed their lead to three runs in the top of the fifth inning on another single by McMurray, which scored Bonadonna — who doubled with two outs in the inning. The fifth inning was the final inning for Ross who allowed three runs — two earned — in his third outing of the season.The three-run lead was plenty enough for Reeser who allowed just one hit through the first five innings — an infield single by sophomore right fielder Chad Jones. The Tigers had several hard-hit balls off the Illinois right hander, but were not able to find any gaps throughout the day.”He was just keeping the ball low,” said sophomore shortstop DJ LeMahieu. “The wind was blowing out and we still didn’t hit great and when we did hit, it was right at someone.”Illinois put the game out of reach in the eighth inning and scored three runs off junior relief pitcher Paul Bertuccini. Just a day after Bertuccini struck out the side in the ninth inning to secure Saturday’s win, the Metairie native allowed the first five hitters to reach base in the eighth inning to spark the Illinois rally.——Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]