After a disappointing two-game sweep at the hands of Western Michigan, the Illini baseball team returns to action today in East Lansing, Mich. against the Michigan State Spartans.

The Illini had won seven straight until falling 12-10 Tuesday night to the Broncos, then committed a season-high nine errors Wednesday to fall 22-15.

Illinois head coach Itch Jones knew that his team would be in for some high scoring games because of mid-week pitching, but didn’t expect the poor defensive effort that led to Illinois’ two losses.

“I think that we made about 15 errors all year, and then we made 13 here in two games,” he said. “But some of that is due to how hard balls are hit off the pitching.”

Senior first baseman Dusty Bensko homered twice in the opening inning of the finale, and now leads the team in home runs with seven and RBIs with 27. Senior centerfielder Drew Davidson – the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week – homered in both games of the series, and is now second on the team in both home runs (6) and RBIs (24).

Illinois will send junior right-hander Brian Blomquist to the mound in the series opener this afternoon. Blomquist threw a complete game seven-hitter last Friday in a 7-1 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten opener. He struck out six and walked two, needing only 115 pitches in nine innings.

Blomquist currently leads the team in victories at 5-1, and also sports a 1.65 earned run average.

Even with the two losses to Western Michigan, the Illini are still currently tied for first place in the Big Ten with Minnesota at 4-0, and are 14-7-1 overall.

The Spartans are coming off a 20-9 pounding of Sangamon Valley State Tuesday, and are currently 11-13 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten.