Illinois for the fifth time in eight days found itself pitted against Minnesota, and for the fifth time in eight days, the game was dictated by pitching.

For the third straight game of those five, Minnesota did enough to get the win. Illinois was eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament with the loss.

Ryan Castellanos got the loss on the mound for Illinois, though he only surrendered runs to Minnesota in one of the five innings he pitched. The three runs he allowed in the fourth were enough for the Gophers, as the Illini continued to struggle to score offensively.

Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb credited his offense for making good contact, but a lot of the hits the Illini got found their way to Minnesota fielders.

“We took good swings and hit the ball on the nose and just hit it right at people,” Hartleb said. “That’s athletics, that’s baseball, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

In that Minnesota fourth inning, Andy Henkemeyer — who hit the walkoff winner in Wednesday’s tournament-opening game — knocked a one-out double, and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly. Four consecutive Gophers singles pushed the score to 3-1 before Castellanos struck out center fielder Troy Larson to end the inning, leaving runners on the corners.

“They got some pretty timely, lucky hits I would say at the least,” center fielder Justin Parr said. “They had some balls fall that probably shouldn’t have fallen, and they got the runs in during that (fourth) inning.”

That was all the damage the Illinois pitching staff would take, however, as Tyler Jay and Drasen Johnson combined for three scoreless innings of relief.

“Our pitching the last week and a half has been outstanding,” Hartleb said. “I’m really pleased with what they’ve done. We got good starts, the bullpen was really good. They’ve given us a chance to win every single game.”

Illinois again had chances to score in the game but finished with seven runners left on base, which was its lowest total of their three games in the tournament.

The Orange and Blue got their lone run in the second when first baseman David Kerian reached second on an error with one out, and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly. A single from right fielder Davis Hendrickson drove in the run. Hendrickson and catcher Kelly Norris-Jones were stranded when a red-hot Thomas Lindauer, who had previously extended his career-high hit streak to 15 games, flied out to center.

Illinois’ best chance to tie the game after the fourth inning came in the seventh, when the bottom of the order was again able to take advantage of Minnesota mistakes. Hendrickson singled to left field, then Minnesota’s second error of the day allowed catcher Kelly Norris-Jones to reach base. A wild pitch advanced the runners both into scoring position during Lindauer’s at-bat.

A base hit away from a tie, Lindauer flied out to center field on a 2-2 pitch.

“I saw a good pitch and I took a good swing and just happened to hit it up,” Lindauer said afterward.

The Illini appeared to be in good position for the eighth, when the two-three-four hitters were due up, but Gophers pitcher Lance Thonvold was able to induce two groundouts before striking out Jordan Parr to get out of the inning.

The Illini threatened with two outs in the ninth, as Reid Roper singled and advanced to second on the third Gophers error of the day, but Thonvold was undeterred and induced a flyout to left field to end the game.

“Our pitching and defense were as good as they’ve been all year,” Lindauer said. “We just didn’t hit, and I mean, we’ve hit all year. We just didn’t have it this week.”

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