Already off to its best conference start in 15 years, the Illinois baseball team split a four-game series this past weekend against Michigan at Illinois Field, but remained tied with Minnesota for first place in the Big Ten at 9-3.

The total series attendance was 4,182 and is second only to the Michigan series of 1990 for the most fans in attendance in Illinois Field history.

With the two wins over the weekend, the Illini are now 20-10-1 and only two wins away from duplicating their 2004 win total.

Michigan, on the other hand, is now 20-12 overall, 3-9 in the conference.

The series opened in dramatic fashion on Friday night, with the Illini rallying from a three-run deficit in the final three innings against Michigan ace Jim Brauer for a 4-3 win.

Trailing 3-1 in the eighth, the Illini loaded the bases, forcing Michigan to go to its bullpen. But instead of going with a reliever, Michigan head coach Rich Maloney brought in starter Derek Feldkamp, who proceeded to walk the first batter he faced, senior third baseman Chad Frk, forcing in a run.

Feldkamp then quickly worked the count to 0-2 against Illini junior catcher Chris Robinson, but couldn’t finish him off and Robinson laced a single to right for the game-winning hit.

“I haven’t had very many multi-hit games, I’m down from last year,” Robinson said. “But I’ve gotten a hit in almost every game, so I was up there 0-for-3, and I said to myself, ‘Statistics show I’m supposed to get a hit right now.'”

Junior Brian Blomquist (7-1) worked eight solid innings for the win and sophomore Jake Toohey finished off the ninth for his fourth save.

Sophomore designated hitter Mike Rohde led the Illini with three hits and two runs scored, while Frk reached base four times and drove in two runs.

“I want to thank the fans because that was unbelievable,” Robinson said on Friday. “They were our tenth man today.”

In Saturday’s opener, both pitchers came out throwing strikes and the game was scoreless for the first five innings. The Wolverines finally broke through against Illini senior starter Jimmy Conroy (5-1) in the sixth, scoring four runs on five hits to take the lead.

The Illini got a run back in the bottom half of the sixth, but the Wolverines added two more in the seventh and won the game 6-1.

Michigan catcher Jeff Kunkel was 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and five RBIs in the game.

Robinson led the Illini in the loss with three hits.

In the second game of the evening, senior second baseman J.R. Kyes homered to lead off the bottom of the first and Illinois never trailed en route to a 4-1 win.

Illini junior starter Matt Whitmore (3-1) pitched his best game of the season in the nightcap, going all seven innings, allowing only one run on four hits for the win.

“In the games he’s thrown in the past, his velocity didn’t look as good, and his breaking ball – he has a late breaking ball – just seems like in our past ballgames it wasn’t breaking late.

“Today I thought his ball was breaking late and I thought he had good velocity,” said Illini head coach Itch Jones. “I just thought he looked like an entirely different pitcher today than he has in our other two conference games.”

In the series finale, Illinois jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on senior first baseman Dusty Bensko’s ninth homer of the season. But the Wolverines came right back in the second, scoring four runs on four hits and two errors, taking a 4-3 lead.

Down 5-3 in the fifth, Illinois rallied to tie the game on a sacrifice fly by Rohde and an RBI single by Frk.

Michigan regained the lead in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by leftfielder Mike Schmidt, and added two more in the ninth for an 8-5 win.

Feldkamp pitched four innings in relief for the Wolverines and got the win, while Toohey (1-2) took the loss for the Illini.

Despite the disappointing split, the Illini are still positive.

“We control our own destiny, and it’s a good thing to have,” Frk said. “We just have to go out and do our jobs, and we’ll be fine.”

Illinois hosts Illinois State on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m., and will travel to Indiana this weekend for a four-game series.