Most college baseball stadiums have similar designs. They usually have about 1,500 to 2,000 seats, all of which are placed directly behind home plate. They have grassy areas running down both baselines open for viewing and the dimensions for each field are almost identical. Sure, some stadiums are a little nicer or a little more run down, but other than a few exceptions, they all look the same.

Minnesota has one of the exceptions.

The University of Minnesota baseball team has played all of its Big Ten home games this season in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The Metrodome is home to the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins, and during the Twins home opener last month held a cool 48, 911 fans – just a few more than the 1,100 Illinois averaged in its series at Illinois Field last week.

Most teams are overwhelmed by the dome, but in Illinois’ four-game series against Minnesota this past weekend, they thrived in it.

The Illini took three of four from the Golden Gophers, moving to 23-19 overall, .500 in the Big Ten at 10-10. They also moved from seventh to fourth in Big Ten standings with only 12 games to play.

The top six teams in the regular season standings advance to the conference tournament.

“All in all, I’m just extremely pleased with the weekend and how our kids played,” Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said. “They came in to win games and took care of business. As a team, we were very, very good this weekend.”

Illini ace Matt Whitmore got the Illini off on the right foot in Friday’s opener giving up only three runs on four hits in six innings, but it was Illinois’ aggressive base-running that proved to be the difference.

With Joe Bonadonna on second and two outs in the eighth inning of a 3-3 game, Illini speedster Kyle Hudson legged out an infield single on the dome’s slick Astroturf surface, putting runners on the corners. Two pitchers later, Bonadonna slid home with the winning run on a wild pitch.

Hartleb was very happy with the way his team took the game into its own hands.

“We scored that run on sheer hustle,” he said.

Illinois’ aggressiveness on the bases continued in Saturday’s doubleheader and into Sunday. For the weekend, Illinois had nine different players steal at least one base, and Ryan Snowden led the team with two steals.

Illini first baseman Dave Shultz led the Illini offensively all weekend, going 8-for-18 with a homer and seven RBIs. Hudson was 6-for-12 with 3 RBIs and four runs scored, and Snowden hit his first Illini home run. Schultz and Snowden each had five hits and Ryan Hastings had four more as the Illini banged out a season-high 24 hits in Sunday’s 16-8 win.

The team appears to be hitting its stride. The offense is obviously clicking, the pitching staff struggled through a couple innings but had a solid weekend and the defense committed only three errors against the Gophers (22-20, 9-11 Big Ten), despite playing in a dome for the first time.

Illinois begins its final home series of the year Friday against Big Ten-leading Michigan (26-15, 14-6) before finishing the season on the road at Indiana and Michigan State.

Both teams are currently fighting for a postseason birth, so the Illini should expect nothing less than a competitive and hostile atmosphere. But the Illini are still good enough to get the wins – they’ll just have to do what they did in Minnesota, and make the road feel like home.

Lucas Deal is a junior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].