A season ago, the Fighting Illini were leaders of the Big Ten while the Hoosiers were fighting to land a comfortable seed in the conference tournament.
Flip the calendar one year and it’s the first place Hoosiers (29-17, 13-5) welcoming the visiting Illini (25-20, 9-9) who are battling to finish in the top eight in the Big Ten to secure a spot in the conference tournament.
“In this conference the talent level has risen so much, you just have to play every game like it’s your last,” junior first baseman Austin Cangelosi said. “We happen to be in first, but we were there last year with Maryland and were do or die every game.”
Junior starting pitcher Cody Sedlock heads the rotation for the Illini, taking over former first round pick Tyler Jay’s duties from a season ago. Sedlock has shown that he can navigate deep into games, owning a top 10 conference ERA at 2.82 and logging 83 innings pitched in 12 starts.
Illinois has won four of its past five games with two nonconference victories against Missouri and Southern Illinois and taking two of three from Maryland at home last weekend. The Illinois offense has struggled this year sitting 13th in the conference with a .255 team batting average, but do have four players with four home runs on the season.
“Every game in the Big Ten for us is huge for us right now,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said. “It’ll be a great test, they have a first round arm going on Friday night and Illinois is hot too they’ve played like we have over the past month.”
IU has won 17 of its 21 games dating back to early April catapulting the Hoosiers into first place in the conference. Owning a 17-5 record at Bart Kaufman field this season, IU hopes to capitalize during its final home series.
Cangelosi said the Hoosiers are simplifying their approach and avoiding using the word pressure as much as they can because after all it’s just a game.
“We’re not putting emphasis on playing for first or for the Big Ten championship,” Cangelosi said. “We’re playing to win that day, win that game, win that pitch.”
With IU having a RPI of 94, its only shot to make the NCAA tournament might be by winning the conference tournament making the final two series very crucial in regards to capturing the regular season crown.
Illinois currently sits at No. 65 in the RPI and Nebraska, IU’s final conference opponent, owns a RPI of 47. Two final series victories wouldn’t only potentially give the Hoosiers the top seed in the Big Ten tournament, but also raise its RPI in hopes that they earn an at-large bid if they fail to win the conference tournament.
But for this weekend, Lemonis has his club with all focus on the Illini.
“It’s going to be a great series, it looks like the weather is going to be great,” Lemonis said. “I’m assuming that we’re going to have big crowds, it’ll be what college baseball is all about this weekend.”
