(Photo Credit: Indiana University Athletics)
CHAMPAIGN, ILL – No. 19 Indiana heads to Illinois for a three-game series from Friday to Sunday. Indiana is 30-14 (11-4 B1G) and currently in second in the Big Ten standings, half a game back from Michigan (11-3 B1G). They now start a tough 7-game road stretch to face Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan.
Friday night, Pauly Milto (6-4, 2.90 ERA) will take the mound against Fisher (5-1, 2.98 ERA). Saturday, Tanner Gordon (4-3, 3.36 ERA) will face Weber (3-1, 2.85 ERA) and Sunday Andrew Saalfrank (6-1, 2.31 ERA) will face Watson (4-1, 3.38 ERA).
This series will have substantial post-season implications as Michigan will be facing a tough Maryland team at College Park this weekend as well.
Indiana continues to be one of the nation’s hottest teams and coming off a seventh consecutive series win on the season against the Golden Gophers. They have been rising in the polls and after breaking into the Top-25 last week, they are now No. 19 per D1Baseball and Perfect Game. They are the only ranked Big Ten team on D1Baseball. D1Baseball has Indiana as a No. 2 seed in the Nashville region.
Their offense and pitching have been near unstoppable over most of the season. They continue as No. 1 in the nation in home runs with 77, which is 6 more than Tulane and Bryant. In pitching, they lead the B1G in strikeout to walk ratio with 2.90 and 429 strikeouts.
Illinois is trying to gain ground in the Big Ten standings and they are currently tied for No. 5. All-time, Illinois is leading the series 118-79-1 and this will be the 189th meeting between the schools.
The Fighting Illini are a very strong home team with a 13-3 record this season (13-10 away). Their last loss at home was against Bradley (28-13) on 4/16/19 in an 8-12 loss
Last season, Indiana went 2-1 against the Fighting Illini during the regular season. They went 0-2 against Illinois in the Big Ten tournament with their last meeting 5/25/18 and a 5-4 Illini victory.
After this three-game series, the Hoosiers will travel to Lexington, KY on Tuesday to face Kentucky (22-22, 5-16 SEC).
