Illini senior shortstop Toby Gardenhire has been around baseball a long time. But the son of Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire had never played in a game like Saturday night’s.

Trailing Northwestern by four runs in the second inning, the Illini spent all night trying to close the gap. But after finally tying the game at 7-7 in the sixth, Northwestern came right back with two more runs in the top of the seventh.

Illinois was not impressed. They loaded the bases immediately off Wildcats’ closer Chris Hayes, and Gardenhire laced a two-run double off the wall in left to tie the game again at nine.

As the orange and blue crowd at Illinois Field erupted, fellow senior infielder J.R. Kyes stepped to the plate and launched a dramatic walk-off three-run homer just over the left field wall, sending Illinois to a 12-9 win and ultimately a four-game series sweep.

“That was the most fun I’ve had playing baseball; that was a great game,” Gardenhire said. “We came all the way back from behind, we got a walk-off home run, there’s not too much more you can ask for.”

With the sweep, Illinois took another huge step toward its first Big Ten title in seven years. At 18-6 in the conference, Illinois (31-14-1) leads Iowa by three games with only eight to play. Northwestern is now 21-23 on the season and 10-14 in the conference.

GAME ONE

In Friday’s series opener, Illinois sent 12 men to the plate in the first and fourth innings, winning 21-4.

Kyes and senior first baseman Dusty Bensko both hit homers in the game, combining for 10 RBIs.

Mark Ori and Jon Mikrut both homered in the loss for Northwestern.

Junior Brian Blomquist picked up the win for the Illini, throwing a 96-pitch complete game and improving his record to 9-2.

“It’s a lot easier to go out and pitch with a big lead,” Blomquist said. “You just go out there and try to throw strikes, get ground balls and keep the team in the game.”

GAME TWO

In Saturday’s opener the Illini hit three more home runs to back senior starter Jimmy Conroy and cruise to a 9-2 win. Bensko hit a solo homer to put the Illini up 2-0 in the third, and when another Ori home run cut the lead to 2-1, the Illini offense sprung to life in the fifth.

Kyes led off with a double, and junior leftfielder Ryan Rogowski hit a bomb to deep right, pushing Illinois’ lead to 4-1.

“I was looking inside and he just gave it to me,” Rogowski said. “So I just swung the bat and took it out.”

Three batters later, senior centerfielder Drew Davidson celebrated his 23rd birthday in style with a three-run shot to left, blowing the game wide open.

Just as fellow starter Brian Blomquist had the night before, Conroy (7-1) went the distance for the Illini, allowing only two runs on nine hits.

GAME THREE

Even though the big win was nice, it was the nightcap that the Illini players won’t soon forget.

Northwestern jumped in front 3-0 in the first, but Bensko hit a three-run homer in the bottom half to tie the game.

But trouble continued for Illini junior starter Matt Whitmore in the second, forcing head coach ItchJones to go to the bullpen for the first time all series and bring in sophomore reliever Aaron Saving. Saving escaped the inning, but not after the Wildcats had pushed their lead to 7-3.

The Illini spent the rest of the game clawing back and entered the bottom of the sixth trailing 7-5.

“I thought we were playing well, even though we were behind,” Jones said. “Our kids kept battling and we came back.”

After the first two Illini hitters were retired, Gardenhire, Kyes and Rogowski had three straight hits to tie the game at 7-7 entering the seventh.

But then Saving finally began to tire, and Wildcats rightfielder Antonio Mul‚ took him deep to right to give the Wildcats a 9-7 lead.

Illinois would not be denied. Sophomore designated hitter Mike Rohde led off the bottom half of the inning with a double and moved to third on a one-out single by junior rightfielder Trevor Huisinga. When sophomore pinch-hitter Jim Sharwarko walked on four pitches, Gardenhire stepped to the plate.

“In the beginning of the at-bat, coach told me to stand on top of the plate,” Gardenhire said. “After I got a strike I was looking for something to hit, and he threw me a slider and I just tried to get a good swing on it.”

And get a good swing he did. On a booming line-drive off the left field wall, Rohde and Huisinga both scored to tie the game. Kyes stepped up next and on 2-1 got a fastball up and drove it over the wall in left for the win.

“He’d thrown two away, so I was just going to try and find something up in the zone,” Kyes said. “He got it up and I just hit it out of the park.”

Saving (4-0) picked up the win for the Illini, giving up only two runs on four hits in six innings of relief. Hayes (3-1) took the loss.

GAME FOUR

After a game like Saturday night, Sunday’s 17-3 thrashing seemed somewhat anti-climatic. The Illini hit a season-high seven home runs in the game, including three in a nine-run seventh inning.

Davidson led the Illini with three homers, and Kyes also homered twice. Robinson and Rohde hit Illinois’ other two home runs.

Robinson’s two-run homer in the fifth put the Illini ahead 5-1, and broke an Illinois’ record for runs scored in a Big Ten series. The previous record, which had been set in 1994 against Northwestern, was 46. Illinois scored 59 total runs in the series.

Junior starter Jake Stewart (2-1) picked up the win, throwing Illinois’ third complete game of the weekend.

The Illini will head to Minneapolis Friday for a four-game series with the Golden Gophers, before returning home to host the second-place Hawkeyes in the season finale.

“We’re stepping it up,” Kyes said. “We all want to win – we want to be Big Ten Champions – so we’re all picking it up to the next level and playing all around good baseball.”