The Illinois baseball team will play its first road game in nearly two weeks tonight in the first of a four-game series against the Indiana Hoosiers.

The Illini are coming off a disappointing 3-3 home stand in which they beat Robert Morris, split a four-game series against Michigan and lost to Illinois State.

In the loss to ISU on Tuesday, the Redbirds rallied to score three runs in the top of the ninth – all with two outs – turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead.

The Illini scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to cut the score to 4-3, but senior first baseman Dusty Bensko lined into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded.

Illini head coach Itch Jones was not happy with his team’s play against the Redbirds, especially three ninth-inning errors.

“We just didn’t do a good job in the ninth,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to make a pickoff to first, and you’ve got to be able to waste a pitch. We just didn’t do a good job and we got beat,” he said.

Even with the loss, Illinois still enters the weekend at 20-11-1 overall and is tied with Minnesota for first in the Big Ten at 9-3. The Hoosiers are 19-16 on the season, 3-9 in the conference.

In tonight’s opener, Illinois will start junior right-hander Brian Blomquist. Blomquist is 7-1 with a 1.82 ERA on the season. He picked up his seventh win last weekend, throwing eight solid innings against the Wolverines.

Jones also plans to start senior Jimmy Conroy (5-1) and junior Matt Whitmore (3-1) on Saturday. Jones has not made a decision on Sunday’s starter and plans to decide after Saturday’s doubleheader.