The Illinois baseball team welcomes its neighbors to the south, the Eastern Illinois Panthers, to Illinois Field tonight for a 6:05 game in non-conference action.

The Panthers are members of the Ohio Valley Conference and are currently in the middle of a dismal season. They are 6-9 in the OVC and 9-29 overall. They have lost 13 of their last 16 games, including five straight.

Eastern has a solid offensive team, but with a collective team ERA of over seven, they have been forced to out-slug most opponents to get wins.

The Illini, on the other hand, are having a much better season. Still tied with Minnesota for first place in the Big Ten, the Illini are currently 12-4 in the conference and 23-12-1 overall.

They are coming off a weekend series where they took three of four from Indiana on the road, including a 7-5 victory in the series finale on Sunday.

“You’re always happy to be in first place at this point because it means you’re going to be right in the middle of things down the stretch,” said Illini head coach Itch Jones after Sunday’s win.

In Friday’s opener, seniors Dusty Bensko and Drew Davidson both homered, and junior catcher Chris Robinson added two homers of his own as the Illini won 8-3.

In Saturday’s double-header, sophomore designated hitter Mike Rohde hit a game-winning grand slam with two outs in the seventh as Illinois stole the series opener from the Hoosiers 4-3.

In the nightcap, the Hoosiers put on a rally of their own to win 14-13, but not after surviving a mammoth day by Bensko, where the first baseman went 3-for-4 with four runs scored and five RBIs.

With the fantastic weekend, Bensko added to his already stellar numbers. The Illini first baseman is now hitting .368 with a Big Ten- leading 11 home runs and 47 RBIs. Davidson is second on the team with seven homers and 31 RBIs, while Rohde has quickly earned his starting spot and is now hitting .364 with three homers and 26 RBIs.

“Coming into the year we thought we’d be playing some of the top teams early in the season, but the way things have gone so far we have the other top teams in the standings still to come, so we certainly have our work cut out for us,” Jones said.

As of Sunday, Jones had not picked a starter for tonight’s game but expected one of Illinois’ many talented relievers to get the start.