Illinois baseball eyes Big Ten tournament title now
May 20—CHAMPAIGN — Dan Hartleb caught up on some sleep Saturday night.
The 19th-year Illinois baseball coach hadn't gotten much of it recently with his team's high-scoring offense leading to plenty of late nights at the ballpark.
Plenty of runs, too.
And plenty of wins.
An outright Big Ten title for the Illini was sealed on Saturday afternoon before their first pitch at Purdue, but Illinois made sure to head into the start of postseason play on a confident note after an 18-10 victory against the Boilermakers in the final game of the regular season.
This latest game featuring double-digit runs by the Illini — their 20th of the season — came after Illinois rallied for an 9-4 win late Friday night at Purdue that clinched a share of the Big Ten championship.
But when the final Big Ten standings were compiled by Saturday night, Illinois (33-17, 18-6 Big Ten) stood atop by itself, a full two games in front of second-place Nebraska (34-19, 16-8), and the Illini program had ample time to celebrate the program's first Big Ten title since 2015.
"It's awesome," Hartleb said. "That's the goal at the beginning of the year is to win it, and to win it outright, our guys did a great job of playing hard (Saturday). Most guys probably knew that we already had it in the bag, but they're playing for a lot more. We're trying to get ourselves in the NCAA tournament, along with this championship. Just an unbelievable job by our guys."
Illinois enjoyed the milestone accomplishment on Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. But by Sunday morning, their focus had already shifted. To Omaha, Neb. And the Big Ten tournament.
Illinois is the No. 1 seed in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament that begins Tuesday at Charles Schwab Field Omaha, the annual site of the College World Series. And if the Illini want to have a shot to reach Omaha again in late June, a spot in the NCAA tournament is a must.
Winning the Big Ten tournament gets Illinois an automatic spot in the 64-team field. Most would think a Big Ten regular-season title would be more than enough to warrant an at-large bid, but Illinois only checks into the RPI at No. 43, a strong factor in consideration for at-large bids.
"It is a huge key going into the (Big Ten) tournament where everybody is chasing you," Hartleb said. "I think we've done a good job of getting ourselves in a good RPI situation, and hopefully we can take care of business in the Big Ten tournament and get into the NCAA tournament."
Illinois faces No. 8 Penn State (26-23) at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Omaha in its first game. Beat the Nittany Lions — the Illini swept Penn State in a three-game series March 28-30 at Illinois Field in Champaign — and a game with either No. 4 Michigan (30-26) or No. 5 Iowa (31-21) awaits at 6 p.m. Thursday. Lose and an elimination game against either the Wolverines or Hawkeyes begins at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Illinois has yet to win a Big Ten tournament game this decade — 0-2 stays happened in 2023 and 2022 with the 2021 and 2020 tournaments canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even the 2015 team that was the last to win a Big Ten regular-season title only went 2-2 at the Big Ten tournament, with the 2011 team the last Illinois group to win the Big Ten tournament.
Hartleb is optimistic his power-hitting lineup that features a Big Ten-best 103 home runs this season is up to the task this week in Omaha. So are his players.
"We've been playing good team baseball," said Drake Westcott, the Illini first baseman who hit a solo home run and then a grand slam in the sixth inning of Saturday's win to give him 16 home runs for the season. "We're doing the little things the right way. We've got to keep that going."
Illinois center fielder Connor Milton, a Champaign Central graduate, echoes the sentiment as the Illini look to continue stacking more May wins that possibly translates by playing into June.
"We're rolling," Milton said. "Let's just keep it going."
