First, a loud — and borderline obnoxious — collective cheer from the Illinois dugout while the Illini were in the field after a routine ground ball out. Next, everyone in the dugout went from calmly seated to running to the dugout fence pumping their fists without making a sound.

It seemed as if the Illinois baseball team (17-7) was trying to find ways to entertain itself Saturday against Oakland. The Illini dominated for most of the weekend, winning the first three games of the series, before dropping the series finale Sunday.

Wisconsin doesn’t have a baseball program, leaving an odd number of teams in the Big Ten and giving Illinois a break in conference play.

The Golden Grizzles (4-18) of the Summit League, of which they were the runner-up last season, had lost eight in a row and entered Sunday’s game with a miserable team batting average of .187.

Oakland’s all-time record against the Big Ten is 9-69 and it wasn’t expected to present much of a challenge to Illinois, but the gap between the two teams seemed to close as the weekend progressed.

“They always say it’s tough to beat a team four times,” left fielder Jordan Parr said.

Illinois’ Kevin Johnson needed just 79 pitches and one hour and 43 minutes to finish a three-hit, complete-game shutout Friday, in which only three of the 27 outs left the infield. Illinois pitching dominated again in the second half of Saturday’s doubleheader, when John Kravetz carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning.

Oakland would end up having a chance to win that game, trailing 3-2 in the ninth with two outs and the winning run on second, as a single landed into left field where Will Krug, normally Illinois’ right fielder, was waiting for it because Jordan Parr got the game off.

The pitch before, third baseman Brandon Hohl was playing close to the line and signaled for Krug to move to his left a few steps. When the ball got to Krug, he fired a nearly perfect throw to home plate to nail Oakland’s Mike Carson, the would-be tying run who ran into the leg of the home plate umpire, who was trying to emphatically declaring him out.

Carson laid on the ground with his hands on his head in disbelief — either at the call or the fact that Oakland had a chance to win the game at all just hours after getting blown out, 21-8.

The throw itself likely wouldn’t have surprised him, however, as that play was the third time in the series an Illinois outfielder threw a runner out at home.

The first two came in Game One of the doubleheader, which was really never in doubt for Illinois. The 21 runs are the most it has scored since Dan Hartleb became head coach and the most for the program since 2005.

With the wind blowing out at Illinois Field, the Illini hit five home runs during the weekend. They came in with six homers on the season. The first of the weekend came from Justin Parr on Friday, his first of the year. He sprinted around the bases after the two-run shot, nearly chasing down Michael Hurwitz on the base paths. Justin Parr said Hurwitz had continually reminded him that Hurwitz had a home run and he did not. In addition to the home run, the center fielder hit .500 during the weekend, adding two doubles, six RBIs and two stolen bases. He extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games, and he has a hit in 22 of Illinois’ 24 games this season.

Thomas Lindauer continued his surprising power surge Saturday, hitting two home runs to bring his total to four, which is tied for the team lead with Jordan Parr, who also homered. Brandon Hohl added a grand slam for his first home run of the season.

After hitting all those home runs and with the wind blowing out again Sunday, Illinois seemed to be trying to replicate some of that power. It resulted in a lot of pop-ups and fly-ball outs. Meanwhile, Oakland’s offense produced nine hits and six runs, three of which came off a Todd Dunham homer in the fourth. That proved to be the difference as the Golden Grizzles won 6-3.

“Tip our hats to them from the standpoint that they had a rough couple days and they found a way to rebound,” Hartleb said.

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