This weekend, Illinois will travel to Bloomington, Indiana to face the Hoosiers. Heading into this weekend’s series, Illinois is in third place with an 11-4 conference record. They suffered their very first series loss last weekend against ranked Maryland but rebounded in a midweek win against Bradley on Wednesday.
Indiana comes into this weekend with a 18-23 record (4-8 Big Ten).
On the Mound
Illinois continues with the starters that have worked for them all year. Solid, steady Cole Kirschsieper is the Friday morning starter. Congratulations to Cole who was awarded the Lee and Euline Eilbracht Scholarship.
Jack Crowder gets the ball on Saturday. Righty Riley Gowens will take the hill on Sunday.
Fighting Illini weekend preview
| Indiana Hoosiers | |
| Bert Kaufman Field | Bloomington, Indiana |
| Friday, April 29 | 11am CT Saturday, April 30 | 1pm CT Sunday, May 1 | 12pm CT |  |
| WDWS AM-1400 | B1G+ | Live Stats |
Random Ramblings
Ben Troike
record 57-game on-base streak
Cam McDonald
49 and counting…
A couple of numbers to be aware:
- Cole Kirschsieper has a 2.62 ERA and that is second best in the conference.
- Check this out, Cal Hejza is leading the Big Ten is sacrifice bunts with 7.
- Outfielder Cam McDonald has reached base every game this season and has a 49-game on-base streak going back to 2021. He ranks second behind Ben Troike’s 57-game streak in 2017-18.
- And the big one… Coach Dan Hartleb has won 497 games. He will most likely reach #500 this season (heck, maybe this weekend!).
A quick note: this year will be the first in probably over a decade that I will miss two home series in a row. Due to a wedding in the family as well as my daughter’s graduation from college, new photos will be sparse until the series against Nebraska.
Go get ’em, Illini!