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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (March 21, 2015)— It was a home run derby at Illinois Field as the USF baseball team dropped the second game of the series with Illinois, 5-2, Saturday afternoon.

All seven runs scored between the two teams came on home runs. The Bulls' (15-8-1) first run of the game came off the bat of Buddy Putnam who launched a two-out solo shot well over the right field wall. It was the fourth of the senior's career and his first of the season.

Down 5-1 in the eighth inning, Daniel Portales hit his first career home run to lead off the inning. It was the 11th of the season for the Bulls, surpassing the 2014 total of nine. With the two homers, the Bulls recorded their third multi-home run game of the season.

The Illini (17-4-1) struck first in the bottom of the second on a pair of solo home runs. RHP Casey Mulholland easily retired the first two batters on just three pitches, before giving up the back-to-back homers.

Illinois hit the only multi-run homer of the game in the sixth inning. Back-to-back singles with no outs put two on for the Illini. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third before Casey Fletcher hit the first pitch he saw for a three-run shot.

Mulholland (3-3) evened his record with the loss, striking out 4 in a complete game effort, while giving up 5 runs on 7 hits. It was the third complete game of the senior's career.

The Bulls and Illini will meet on the diamond for the final game of the series Sunday, March 22, at noon with freshman RHP Joe Cavallaro drawing the start.

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- #GoBulls -