Illinois baseball remains in first place in the Big Ten. The Illini took three-of-four on the road against the Indiana Hoosiers over the weekend to move to 12-4 in the conference and remain tied with Minnesota in first place. The Illini are 23-12-1 overall.

In the series opener Friday afternoon, the Illini smacked four home runs and received another incredible pitching performance from junior Brian Blomquist, winning 8-3. The hard-throwing right-hander allowed only two runs in seven and a third innings to pick up the win, his sixth in a row.

The Illini already led by three when they started hitting home runs all over Indiana’s Sembower Field. Seniors Dusty Bensko and Drew Davidson hit back-to-back homers in the third and junior catcher Chris Robinson added a pair of solo shots in the sixth and the ninth.

Illinois head coach Itch Jones was happy with his team’s performance against the Hoosiers, especially after a disappointing mid-week loss to Illinois State.

“I think it was very important for us to get back into the win column today,” Jones said. “We’ve struggled in some of the mid-week, non-conference games, but we’ve been a different team on the weekends when we have the top of our rotation going.”

Saturday was much more exciting, as each team rallied for dramatic wins.

Game One turned out to be a genuine pitchers’ duel as neither team scored through five innings. The Hoosiers finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth with three runs off Illini senior starter Jimmy Conroy and entered the seventh up 3-0.

Indiana pitcher Brian Lortz retired the first two batters in the top of the seventh, but then began to labor, and the Illini took advantage.

They loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, bringing up designated hitter Mike Rohde, who was already 2-for-3 against Lortz. He hit the first pitch he saw over the right field fence for a game-winning grand slam.

“The wind was blowing out, and Mike was looking for a good first pitch,” Jones said. “He got what he was looking for and hit a huge home run for us.”

Unfortunately for Illinois, Indiana wouldn’t allow the second game to get away like the first, putting on a great rally of their own to win 14-13.

Down to its last out in the seventh, Indiana clean-up hitter Ryan Parker appeared to end the game on a pop up to second baseman Shawn Roof. But Roof dropped the ball, and the Hoosiers capitalized on the mistake one batter later, tying the game on an inside-the-park home run.

In extra innings, the Illini were unable to get their offense rolling again and the Hoosiers finally won in the ninth on a single by Parker.

Even with the loss, the Illini still had a great day offensively. Bensko hit his Big Ten-leading 11th homer this season in the fourth, and finished the game 3-for-4 with 4 runs and 5 RBIs.

Rohde, second baseman J.R. Kyes, and junior outfielder Trevor Huisinga also had three hits for the Illini.

“We’ve lost some games we shouldn’t have, like this one,” Jones said. “But at the same time we’ve won some we probably shouldn’t have. That’s just baseball, I guess.”

In Sunday’s finale, right hander Jake Stewart was fantastic in his first career start as the Illini won 7-5. Stewart, who had pitched four solid innings out of the bullpen against ISU on Tuesday, went seven innings, allowing two runs on 12 hits, striking out three and walking only one.

Davidson and senior infielders Chad Frk and Toby Gardenhire all had two hits for the Illini, and Davidson and Gardenhire added five RBIs.