Today marks the 126th season opener for the Illinois baseball team, and the start of its defense of its 2005 Big Ten title.

The team’s season kicks off tonight when the Illini meet Stetson University in DeLand, Florida for the first game of the Stetson Invitational. The Illini, though, are a much different looking team than last year’s Big Ten Champions.

The Illini lost 13 of last year’s 22 letterwinners to either graduation or the Major League Baseball draft. Only two position starters return from last year’s team, senior rightfielder Trevor Huisinga and junior designated hitter Mike Rohde.

“We have some guys with experience,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “Not that they were starters, but we have some guys that have been here a year. I’m not exactly sure who’s going to play which positions the first few weekends. We’ll juggle things around a little bit and see who fits in and who adapts to things. I think we have good athletes, and I think they will do a good job for us this year.”

Not only will this weekend’s tournament be the first games for many Illini newcomers, but it will also be the first games for Hartleb as Illinois’ head coach.

After being an assistant coach for 15 years at Illinois, Hartleb took over the reigns for the Illini after Hall of Fame head coach Richard “Itch” Jones retired after leading the team to its first Big Ten championship in seven years.

“To this point everything has been basically the same things I’ve done in the past,” Hartleb said. “Coach Jones gave us assistants a lot of responsibility and let us do a lot of the day-to-day things. The only main difference has been I have had to do a lot more public speaking-type things and a little more office paper work, but other than that the transition has been good.”

Even with a handful of youthful players getting ready to see their first action of their collegiate careers, Hartleb is confident the team will mature quickly and adapt to its new roles.

“They’ve done a great job to this point in practice,” Hartleb said. “But you find out who your true leaders and true competitors are once you face some other guys. The next couple weeks will tell a lot about what we’ll be doing and who’ll be doing the playing during the heart of the season.”

While youth may be an issue for the Illini in the field, it certainly won’t be out on the mound.

The Illini return three pitchers who started five or more games and two who started at least 10 games last season, which includes first team All-Big Ten pitcher senior Brian Blomquist. Blomquist returns to the Illini after a stellar 10-3 season in which he went 6-2 in Big Ten play and posted a 3.53 ERA.

“(Brian) doesn’t have to carry the team, he just has to go out and compete on a daily basis,” Hartleb said. “I expect him to go out and have a strong year just like he did last year and keep us in games on a weekly basis.”

It’s not just the starting pitching that have Illinois excited about what it is sending to the mound, the bullpen arms look to be another big strength for the Illini.

Juniors Aaron Saving and Jake Toohey, the top two relievers from last year’s team, return to highlight the Illini’s bullpen. Saving was 4-2 with two saves and a 3.38 ERA in 19 relief appearances last season, and Toohey collected five saves for the Illini in 35 innings of work, with a 3.60 ERA.

“I think the bullpen could be a strength for us this year,” Hartleb said. “We may be able to have some situations where we could do a few right-handed versus left-handed matchups.”

With the pitching staff set and ready to go, the Illini are hoping to get off to a good start this weekend in Florida. The team opens the round-robin tournament against host Stetson (3-5) and then will play South Florida (2-5) and Western Carolina (1-1) on Saturday and Sunday.

“I don’t know what to expect this weekend, honestly,” Hartleb said. “I think it’s going to be a situation where we’ll juggle the lineup from day to day just to get some different guys some playing time. I want to go out and see how a few guys compete and I’m excited about the guys that will be on the field.”