The Illinois baseball team will make its first appearance at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn., for the first time since 1995 this weekend when the Illini take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers tonight at 6:30 in the first of a four-game weekend series.

After winning three games in last weekend’s Big Ten series against Iowa at Illinois Field, the Illini sit in a tie for seventh-place in the Big Ten standings with Penn State at 7-9 at the midway point of the Big Ten season.

However, only the top six teams in the Big Ten are invited to the Big Ten Tournament at the end of the season for an opportunity to play for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Heading into the second half of the conference season, the Illini hold their fate in their own hands. All but one of the four remaining Big Ten series the Illini will play are against teams ahead of them in the conference standings, including this weekend’s opponent, Minnesota.

“We can control our own destiny,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “We can push some team ahead of us down a little bit and raise ourselves up at the same time. That’s what you want. Just an opportunity to control your own destiny and we are capable of doing that.”

The Gophers come into this weekend’s series just one game ahead of the Illini in the conference standings at 8-8, and are tied for fourth in the Big Ten with Purdue and Michigan State.

With a good performance against the Gophers the Illini could put themselves in a solid position to return to the Big Ten Tournament for consecutive years for first time since the Illini made the Big Ten Tournament in six straight seasons from 1996-2001.

“The Big Ten is pretty tight this year,” senior pitcher Matt Whitmore said. “Everybody is close and there isn’t really a big gap. We know if we can win three or four games then we can move up a few places.”

Illinois will send Whitmore to the mound in game one of the series tonight. Last Friday Whitmore earned his first win as a starter for the Illini against Iowa, pitching 6 1/3 innings and allowing just three hits. Whitmore is 2-0 on the season with an outstanding 2.03 ERA and is holding opposing hitters to a .210 batting average.

Illini freshman standout pitchers Tanner Roark and Ben Reeser are slotted to start games two and three of the series on Saturday. Both Roark and Reeser earned their way into the starting rotation after making quality starts against the Hawkeyes last weekend.

“I want to go out there and improve on my first start,” Whitmore said. “Just go out there and work on keeping the ball down and improving for the rest of the year.”

This weekend’s games will be the first time the Illini have played in the Metrodome since 1995. In that series the Illini went 1-3 against the Gophers and lost all three games by an average of just two runs.

“We have never played in a dome before so we’ll have to adjust to it quick,” junior shortstop Shawn Roof said. “But anytime you get to play in a Major League park it is pretty cool. All of us want to be Major League players, so anytime you get the chance to play in a Major League park it’s awesome.”

Minnesota enters this weekend’s series at 21-17 and are lead by senior first baseman Andy Hunter. Hunter leads the Gophers in hitting on the season with a .331 batting average and four homeruns.

Minnesota won last year’s series with Illinois 3-1. The Illini’s lone win last season against the Gophers came in an 8-7 victory in the two teams’ Friday night game.

“Minnesota is always a quality club,” Hartleb said. “They have very good pitching and are solid defensively. They are similar to us, but they do have a little more experience than us. Yet, I expect us to be able to compete very well with them.”