Head coach Dan Hartleb has shuffled his pitching staff for when the Illinois baseball team travels to Arlington, Texas, for a four game series this weekend.

Kevin Johnson is the team’s usual No. 1 starter and started the opening game of each series last year, and John Kravetz led the team in wins last season as a freshman.

However, Hartleb is starting the first two games against Houston Baptist with his two freshmen Kevin Duchene and Nick Blackburn.

The Illini are up against the Huskies for the first time in school history on Friday and Saturday, who are hitting just .235 on the season.

So, Hartleb wants to save his best arms for a much better hitting UT-Arlington, in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader and the series finale on Sunday.

But this weekend may just serve as a bit of foreshadowing for the future. Illinois may not be too far removed from a time where Duchene and Blackburn are the cornerstones of the rotation.

Hartleb believes his freshman class as a whole has a chance to be special.

Duchene and Blackburn are fresh off their first career victories last weekend after their second start, where they looked much more comfortable.

A week before they left their pitches high in the strike zone and fell behind in the count because they got focused on aiming the ball. Neither Duchene nor Blackburn made it out of the fifth inning in their first decision.

“Yeah, much less nervous,” Duchene said about that second start. “I went out there not really being surprised by anything I knew what to expect.”

Although Duchene escaped with a win last week, his numbers weren’t overwhelming: 5 1/3 innings, giving up five runs, four earned and nine hits, and was behind in the count still most of the day.

Duchene wears goggles when he starts because he has Keratoconus — a degenerative disorder of the eye.

His doctor recommended he wears the goggles as more of a precaution, but he hasn’t had any problems adjusting to them.

Duchene missed a month during fall workouts because of soreness in his throwing arm and the Illini wanted to be cautious. Duchene was around for that month watching and learning but without pitching he may still be a little behind his full capability.

“That first start I kind of had some nerves out there in me,” Blackburn said. “That second start I felt more comfortable on the mound.”

After watching the first games of Illinois’ season, Blackburn developed a plan with his catcher Jason Goldstein instead of pitching to his strengths.

“I felt like I tried to overthrow my fastball,” Blackburn said. “I kind of toned it down a little bit, and worked on hitting my spots and getting the ball down, and changing speeds.”

That doesn’t end with Duchene and Blackburn, although starting pitchers usually get all the credit.

Illinois has seen impressive outings from Tyler Jay, who in three appearances has held opponents to a .167 batting average, Ryan Castellanos and J.D. Nielsen — who each have struck out five batters this season. When Hartleb talks about them and proudly looks at the pitchers he’s recruited and talks about their “high baseball IQ.”

“They’ve all got a chance to be very, very productive here,” Hartleb said.

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