From a national perspective, the Illinois baseball team is a northern school, from a conference that doesn’t send many teams to nationals, with a really talented outfielder named Parr. The Illini can do some damage, but their ace pitcher is hurt, and they’re in a regional with the consensus No. 2 team in the country and another top-25 RPI team.

It took a team of whiz kids to figure there’s more to the Orange and Blue than that.

Illinois started its NCAA tournament campaign strong with a 6-4 upset win over Georgia Tech to advance within its four-team double-elimination regional bracket in Nashville, Tenn. The Illini will face Vanderbilt — which was ranked No. 1 in the nation before losing its conference tournament last week — Saturday at 7 p.m.

It was Parr who led the Illini, though not the first-team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year Justin Parr. It was his twin brother Jordan who belted two home runs in consecutive plate appearances to guide Illinois to an early lead. Parr took two Dusty Isaacs pitches over the 35-foot-high end of the fence in deep left, first an off-speed pitch in the fourth for a 2-0 lead, then a fastball in the sixth to push the lead to 4-0. They would be his only hits on the day, good for three RBIs.

Illinois had entered the hit and run in the fourth inning with Justin Parr on first base, but after Jordan Parr fouled off the first pitch, third base coach Eric Snider signaled off the hit and run, allowing Parr to swing away.

“We hadn’t gotten on the board, it was the fourth inning, it was time to try and make something happen,” Parr said. “I got a first-pitch fastball, and I fouled it down the right-field line. Thinking right side on the fastball got me on time and … I had the same timing that I was gonna take the fastball to the opposite field, and I actually got an off-speed pitch and I pulled it. I think that it was just one of those perfect things that it got me on time to hit the off-speed to the left side.”

Kevin Duchene started on the mound for Illinois and performed like an ace as he continued to fill the void left by an ailing Kevin Johnson. Duchene went seven innings, allowing three runs off eight hits with five strikeouts. The Georgia Tech lineup was aggressive, and the freshman lefty knew he could use that to his advantage.

“I wasn’t trying to be too fine,” Duchene said. “I knew that there was room for errors, these guys were gonna try and hit just about anything in the zone. Once I got ahead, I started throwing more changeups and breaking balls, which both were very good (Friday).”

Duchene also got help from his defense, which committed no errors on the day, and fellow freshman catcher Jason Goldstein, who gunned down two Georgia Tech runners to quash potential rallies early on.

Duchene had trouble with the middle of the Yellow Jackets lineup, as the four-through-six hitters combined for six hits on the day. Most fearsome of all was Daniel Palka, the Georgia Tech cleanup hitter, who went 3-for-5 and scored twice and also came into pitch the game’s final innings.

Palka had a chance to win the game for the Yellow Jackets in his final at-bat in the ninth inning against Illinois closer Bryan Roberts. The junior lined out to first baseman David Kerian, whose diving grab prevented at least one run from scoring and putting the winning run on for Georgia Tech.

“I thought we threw some good pitches to him, he’s a good hitter. And again, we threw some quality pitches down in the zone, he got his hits, but didn’t really hurt us from a home run standpoint,” Hartleb said. “When he came in pitching-wise, we were able to do some things against him as well. But he’s a guy you’d like to have on your team.”

For Roberts, it was his eighth save and one he felt he needed four outs to get. On a 2-2 count with two outs, Roberts threw a fastball on the low edge of the strike zone. Roberts strutted off the mound, thinking he had just won the game, but no strike call came. Roberts barely had time to collect himself before throwing another ball and going from game over to two on with Palka at the plate.

“Bryan is a leader on this team,” Duchene said. “He’s a fifth-year, he’s been around the block a few times, he knows exactly what he can and can’t do and how to handle adversity when it arises. He did exactly what he was supposed to do — he stepped off, took a second, got back to it, and did his job.”

Saturday’s matchup against No. 1-seed Vanderbilt will be the toughest competition Hartleb’s squad has seen all season, and his team will be ready for it.

“We’ll go right at them,” he said. “That’s why we’re here. We’ll play the best, and find a way to compete against them and beat ’em.”

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