Illinois baseball prepares for Big Ten road clash with Indiana
Sophomore pitcher Jack Crowder prepares to pitch the ball during the game against Purdue on April 3. The Illini will on the road to Indiana for 3 match ups over the weekend.
April 29, 2022
The Illini are heading back on the road to Bloomington, Ind., to take on the Hoosiers in a three-game series. It will be important for the Illini to have a good series as they enter Friday with a one-half game lead for the Big Ten second-place spot over the Maryland Terrapins.
The Hoosiers have struggled all season long, sitting in tenth place in the conference and ranking 114 on the Division I baseball RPI rankings. However, Indiana is 10-7 at home and has won five of their last six, so it will be essential to approach the series like every other in the Big Ten.
“We know this is the time of year where teams either fall apart or get stronger, so we just have to take care of our own business,” said junior Ryan Kutt.
D1baseball.com released a tournament seeding projection if the season ended April 26, with the Illini sitting in the first eight teams outside of the postseason field. Every game counts at this point for the Illini and Kutt loves that they were able to get another win before taking on Indiana.
“We are all pretty confident right now,” Kutt said. “We’ve been playing pretty well in Big Ten play this year, and it’s nice to bring some momentum into the weekend.”
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The Hoosiers have had no problem scoring runs this year and are putting an average of 7.85 runs across the plate in their previous eight games. This should be a good challenge for an Illini pitching crew that has had its fair share of difficulties over the past couple of weeks.
The Illini hitters have been the bright side more often than not for the team and will be going up against a pitching staff whose lowest ERA is 4.39.
Leading the offense is junior Cam McDonald, who has now reached base in 49 consecutive games, putting his streak on the line once again this weekend.
Another junior in the middle of the lineup for the Illini is Jacob Campbell, who has now homered in two consecutive games and is looking to stay hot, knocking in runs this weekend.
The series will be broadcast from Friday to Sunday on BIG Network + as well as on radio at WDWS 1400-AM. The first of the series will start at 11 a.m., the second at 1 p.m. and the final of the series at 12 p.m.
Next, the Illini are back in Champaign for a ten-game homestand, their final games at Illinois Park of the year. The final homestand of the year will begin with Indiana State on Tuesday.
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