Even before the Illinois baseball team opened its season against Tennessee Tech, head coach Dan Hartleb knew his team had reached the point where it needed to play somebody else. He knew this from watching at times in practice, when players failed to make some of the adjustments suggested by the coaching staff. 

“Sometimes, they will progress more once they fail,” Hartleb said. “We had some guys fail this weekend, and it should be fairly easily to get them to make adjustments now.”

Illinois struck out a lot, including 13 times on Sunday, to bring the total to 28 on the weekend. Pitchers left the ball high in the strike zone and even walked in runs, and the Illini left 32 men on base in three games on the way to a 1-2 start to the season.

Despite that, Illinois battled back in the series finale Sunday, when it trailed 5-2 in the seventh and 6-5 in the eighth to tie the game heading into the ninth inning. With two outs in the bottom of that frame, freshman pitcher Tyler Jay left a fastball high and outside that Tennessee Tech designated hitter Brandon Thomasson hit over the right field wall for a game-winning home runs. In his third inning of work in his season debut, Jay knew he wanted that ball back as soon as he threw it, and center fielder Justin Parr knew it was gone right off the bat. Illinois’ once promising start to the season was erased by the time it landed. 

That homer sent Illinois home losers of two out of three to Tennessee Tech after winning the season-opener 13-2. Those 13 runs were the most in the first game for Illinois since a 25-5 beatdown over Texas-Pan American in 2000.

Everything went right for Illinois on Friday, every starter reached base and the team notched 16 hits.

Not that starting pitcher Kevin Johnson needed the help. He finished with six innings and six strikeouts and allowed only one run for his first victory.

That team was absent for the rest of the weekend. The Illini failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities in two one-run losses against Tennessee Tech.

“We may have been too lax on some things and took some things for granted,” Parr said.

Illini freshmen got some game experience during the weekend, including starter Kevin Duchene, who was in the unenviable position of making his college debut Saturday and endured two separate snow delays. Although both lasted about five minutes each, Duchene still had to compete with the temperature in the 30s, and the wind speed up to 15 mph blowing at the back of his neck that even his blue Illini turtleneck could barely block. He had to do extra stretches and play extra catch to stay loose during the game, but struggled through 4 2/3 innings while giving up five runs and earning a no-decision. Illinois would lose 6-5.

The players were disappointed and thought they beat themselves this series, as it seemed they’d had the Golden Eagles overmatched after the first game. 

Parr said this first series isn’t indicative of how the season’s going to play out for the Illini at all, and that he was still confident in his team’s ability.

For Hartleb, he expects that he’ll see a lot better practices moving forward, this week especially.

“After some performances this weekend, from everybody,” Hartleb said, “(the players will) understand the things we’re telling them are the things we need to do to be successful.”

Jamal can be reached at [email protected] and @jamalcollier.