After a pair of weekend tournaments with top-ranked schools on the East Coast, Illinois (2-5) opened its home diamond with a game against Eastern Illinois (1-5). The Panthers competed at Illinois Field in 2023, converting over the Illini after 12 scoreless innings from both sides.
At the time of their meeting last season, the Panthers had won five more games and lost five fewer than the Illini, who sat at 15-18 midway through the season. Both Illinois and Eastern Illinois have a similar start to 2024: Each of the programs is currently on a three-game losing streak. Eastern Illinois was swept by Nicholls across three games last weekend in Louisiana. It picked up its only win so far on the finale of competitions against Florida A&M opening weekend.
While the Illini were shut down at the plate by the Panthers in 2023, pitchers sophomore Julius Sanchez, senior Jack Crowder and senior Joe Glassey all tossed an excellent game and have returned to the Illini squad this year. With a more veteran roster featuring 13 players in their fourth year or beyond, head coach Dan Hartleb said he anticipates a more secure season in 2024.
“It gives you some comfort when you have some veteran players,” Hartleb said. “When you have that older group and a number of guys that, one, can go out and perform at a high level because they have been there, and then also help those young guys it’s comforting, so I’m excited about having an older group.”
Hartleb also expressed his intent to challenge his team and build tough tournaments into the schedule every year. Throughout their competitions so far, the Illini have recorded a .214 batting average with a .687 on-base plus slugging percentage, a slower start compared to the teams overall hitting in 2023, finishing with a .271 average and .851 OPS.
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“Sometimes players get in a mode where they’re worried about the technology and the numbers, and that was us last year, we didn’t compete,” Hartleb said.
The goal of winning games eclipses any statistic in the book, and the Illini must leave fewer runners on base and avoid long innings from their opponents to reach that goal. Long stretches of scoreless innings from Illinois and big innings from competitors is what has defined their losses this season.
Eastern Illinois’ roster holds two big bats each with 10 plus hits and averages over .450 so far at the plate. Lucas Loos of the Panthers boasts a .864 slugging percentage with two home runs and six RBI. Batting .478 in Eastern Illinois’ lineup is Cole Gober, who has recorded 11 hits and a home run.
Warm weather lingers in Champaign for Illinois Field’s opening day with a chance of storms alongside 70-degree temperatures for the first pitch at 3 p.m.
