Illini's big bats go cold in tourney opener
May 23—OMAHA, Neb. — Illinois is six years removed from its last extended run in the Big Ten baseball tournament.
The Illini have mostly been two-and-done in their recent trips to Charles Schwab Field. They lost both of their games in 2023 to Indiana and Michigan. The order was reversed but the results the same in 2022.
While the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the tournament in 2021 and 2020, Illinois also went 0-2 in 2019 with back-to-back losses to Maryland and Michigan.
That's what the Illini are trying to avoid this week in Omaha after their seven-game losing streak in the Big Ten tournament hit eight early Wednesday afternoon in an 8-4 loss to Penn State. Illinois (33-18) will face No. 5 Iowa (31-22) at 10 a.m. Thursday in an elimination game.
The top-seeded Illini entered the Big Ten tournament fresh off a series sweep at Purdue that delivered their first regular-season conference title since 2015. Eighth-seeded Penn State (27-23) had to sweep Maryland in its final regular-season series to even make the tournament field. Then the Nittany Lions promptly knocked off the champs by doing what almost no team had the last two months.
"To keep that offense from putting up crooked numbers, that's pretty special," Penn State coach Mike Gambino said. The Nittany Lions snapped Illinois' streak of 21 consecutive games with a home run and held the Illini to four or fewer runs for just the fourth time in two months.
"We knew going in we thought we needed eight runs to win the baseball game," Gambino continued. "You're not holding that club off the board. You hope you don't give up a big inning, and you hope you can keep them under six. To keep them to four was awesome."
Illinois scored a single run in fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Coltin Quagliano's RBI double in the eighth was the Illini's lone extra-base hit. Quagliano finished with three hits and Brody Harding and Drake Westcott had two apiece, but the Illini couldn't string together enough of those singles off Penn State's Travis Luensmann and Mason Horwat to generate much offense.
"The good thing is nobody's worried," Illinois catcher Camden Janik said. "It's not our first loss. We bounce back and have done it a bunch this year. Nobody will be surprised when we get on a roll."
It will likely take the type of offensive effort Illinois flashed throughout the Big Ten regular season. An offense that was mostly absent — particularly with runners in scoring position — against Penn State. The Illini stranded at least one runner in every inning and 10 for the game.
"Sometimes, you hit the ball hard right at people, but we just didn't hit the ball hard with runners in scoring position," Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said. "They made pitches when we had runners in scoring position. We did not do that. It's one day. That's the beauty of baseball. A lot of times you get to do it the next day."
Hartleb noted his team didn't just lack sharpness offensively. The pitching wasn't there, either. Penn State put pressure on Illini starter Jack Crowder with multiple baserunners in the first inning, and the Nittany Lions kept it up as they chased Crowder in the fifth after scoring three runs and kept scoring off relievers Julius Sanchez (two runs) and Jake Rons (three more).
"We scuffled," Hartleb said. "We weren't ahead in the count. We weren't throwing multiple pitches for strikes. Way too many elevated pitches in the middle. We just weren't sharp from an offensive or pitching standpoint."
