A week before its first series of the 2014 season, the Illinois baseball team was surrounded by high preseason expectation.

After a postseason run at the NCAA Nashville Regional to end 2013, the Illini lost five position players and two pitchers from its lineup. Their squad was once filled with youth — and optimism.

“We might be overconfident,” junior starting pitcher John Kravetz said in the preseason.

At No. 2 in the starting rotation, Kravetz was joined by No. 3 Drasen Johnson and No. 1 Kevin Duchene, the 2013 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Together, with its strongest relief coming from sophomores Ryan Castellanos and Tyler Jay, the pitching staff was looking to exceed last postseason’s 3.76 ERA mark — its lowest since 1976.

But the first week didn’t produce the expected results, with the Illini pitching staff surrendering 28 runs to Georgia State and losing two of three its opening weekend.

“Overall, we pitched poorly,” head coach Dan Hartleb said after the series. “We got the back end of our bullpen, which should be very strong, and we were poor.”

The Illinois pitchers didn’t let the first week hurt their confidence, though, only allowing 26 runs in their next nine games, leading to five wins.

At the plate, however, Illinois faced struggles with consistency for many of the season’s first series.

After the Georgia State series, in which the Illini scored 29 runs, they failed to gain traction for three of their next four series, losing each one.

“Right now, we have a poor mentality at the plate,” Hartleb said following the series loss to Southern Illinois on March 15.

Following the series in Carbondale, Illinois, the Illini also lost Duchene to forearm strain, which would hold him out for the next six weeks.

At 7-9, Illinois returned home with the hopes that its own field would help its season alive going into the Big Ten season — which is exactly what happened.

After rolling through Indiana State at home on March 18, the Illini played their home-opening series against Xavier and won three of four. They then took a midweek game from Illinois State before taking two more from Purdue in a three-game series to open Big Ten play.

But given the way the season started, Hartleb kept a simple mindset following those seven wins.

“You can’t sit here and live on what we’ve done,” he said after the Purdue series. “We still have to get better.”

And better they got.

Illinois’ next five weeks would bring them four Big Ten-series sweeps over Northwestern, Iowa and Penn State on the road and Michigan State at home. Although Illinois fell to Michigan and then-No. 24 Indiana at home, the Illini were able to pull one win from each of them, which extended its conference record to its current state at 16-5  — tied for second in the Big Ten.

The Illini now have one Big Ten series left with Nebraska.

And with the Big Ten Tournament just a four days after on May 21 in Omaha, Nebraska, the Illini won’t even return home beforehand.

But the Illini have shown all season that nothing — not youth, not injuries, not the opposition — can keep them from going out playing their game. And no one should expect that to change as Illinois make its push for the NCAA tournament.

J.J. can be reached at [email protected] and @Wilsonable07.