The Illinois baseball team has put itself in a great position to make a run at its second straight Big Ten regular season championship.

After picking up three wins last weekend, the Illini (23-19, 10-10 Big Ten) moved into sole possession of fourth place in the Big Ten behind Ohio State, Michigan and Northwestern. The Illini welcome co-Big Ten leading Michigan to Illinois Field this weekend.

“We got ourselves back at .500 this past weekend and into fourth place,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “Every game from here on out is a big game, no matter who we’re playing. We can control our own destiny and we just have to take one game at a time.”

But before the Illini can start preparing for its big series with the Wolverines over the weekend they have to concentrate on today’s opponent, Saint Xavier.

St. Xavier replaced Robert Morris on the Illini’s schedule after Robert Morris was forced to pull out of the game because of a postponement of a conference game from earlier in the season.

“We can’t look past anybody,” sophomore second baseman Ryan Hastings said. “Anybody can beat anybody on any given day in baseball. So we have to come out and play hard and everything will take care of itself.”

St. Xavier comes into today’s game with a 25-23 record and atop the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference at 16-2.

The Cougars are led by senior outfielders Chris Gruber and Luke Gregerson. Gruber leads the Cougars with a .406 batting average, while Gregerson leads the team in home runs and RBIs with five and 44, respectively.

“(St. Xavier) was just one game away from the College World Series at the NANI (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) level last season,” Hartleb said. “We can’t look past any team. We have to play each and every inning of each and every game. They are a solid team and they will come in hungry.”

Illinois will send red-shirt freshman pitcher Luke Obukowicz to the mound today for his first ever start as an Illini. On the season Obukowicz is 1-0 with a 3.52 ERA in five appearances for the Illini.

The first pitch is set for 2 p.m. at Illinois Field. Illinois is 13-3 all time against St. Xavier and won the last meeting against the Cougars 19-2 back on April 1, 1987.

“I don’t care who we are playing,” Hartleb said. “Whether it’s the number one team in the country or the last team in the country, I expect our hitters and our pitchers to be sharp and have a solid approach to the game.”