The Illinois baseball team has been waiting for this for a year.

Last season, the Illini were snubbed of a Big Ten Tournament berth, as they were left out in a three-way tiebreaker with Minnesota and Ohio State, despite beating both teams in regular-season series. Illinois felt slighted, and responded this year by ensuring their positioning didn’t come down to a tiebreaker.

The team get its entry into the tournament as a No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 seed Minnesota in the opening round. The Illini went 2-1 versus the Gophers last weekend.

Left-hander Kevin Duchene got his eighth win of the season Thursday, giving him a school record for wins by a freshman pitcher.

Duchene was honored this week with Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, as the conference released its regular-season awards Tuesday.

Topping all achievements, however was Justin Parr’s Big Ten Player of the Year distinction. Parr has the highest batting average in the conference — good for third highest in the NCAA — and went on an historic 33-game hitting streak that set a school record.

Parr and Duchene were also named to the all-conference and all-freshman teams, respectively. Parr was joined by shortstop Thomas Lindauer and first baseman David Kerian on the first team all-Big Ten squad, and catcher Jason Goldstein also garnered the all-freshman distinction.

Duchene also made second team all-Big Ten, along with outfielder Jordan Parr.

Duchene won’t be the only all-conference player to take to the mound Wednesday, however, as Minnesota’s Tom Windle was named first-team all-conference. Windle gets the start for the Gophers to try and redeem a performance in which he allowed four earned runs through six innings and was outpitched by Duchene. Windle, who is also left-handed, boasts a 2.05 ERA.

Though the game is Illinois’ fourth straight in Minnesota, head coach Dan Hartleb said he preferred the situation in which his team played there the weekend before, and could stay there for the week.

“If we were somewhere else, we would’ve had to go home, repack, then turn around and travel up here, so this is probably the best-case scenario,” he said.

The fact that the Illini just faced the Gophers gives both teams a scouting advantage, which will likely cancel out for both teams.

“They’ve obviously seen our guys, we’ve seen their guys, so it’s just gonna be a battle again,” Lindauer said. “We expect Duchene to throw well, and I’m sure they expect Windle to throw well.”

Duchene normally wouldn’t be starting, as Kevin Johnson is the staff’s ace, but Johnson has missed three of four starts recently due to arm soreness. Hartleb said the team would go into the tournament preparing for the worst — that is, for Johnson to be unavailable for the whole tournament.

“We’re just being very cautious so that we don’t screw him up for an extended period of time,” Hartleb said.

Illinois proved last weekend it doesn’t need Johnson to beat Minnesota. As for the rest of the Big Ten, only this week will tell.

“This is where memories are made, obviously, in the postseason,” Lindauer said. “It comes down to these six teams, and I guess may the best man win.”

Eliot can be reached at [email protected] and @EliotTweet.