Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers Open Big Ten Tourney With 4-3 Win Over Illinois
OMAHA, Neb. — Indiana pieced together a fine pitching performance with four different hurlers and opened the Big Ten Tournament in style with a 4-3 win over Illinois on Tuesday.
With a quick turnaround from last weekend's regular-season finale at Michigan State on Saturday night, the No. 2-seed Hoosiers got two scoreless innings from starter Ben Seiler, and then turned it over to Ethan Phillips, who gave up one run in two innings. Evan Whiteacre became the bulk guy, pitching 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball to get he win and Brayden Risedorph closed it out for his sixth save.
Indiana (41-16) advances and will play Iowa on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET. The No. 3-seeded Hawkeyes beat Michigan 13-3 in the first game of the tourney on Tuesday morning. Michigan will play Illinois in an elimination game on Wednesday night. (Full tournament schedule below)
This is the Hoosiers' 10th straight Big Ten Tournament appearance, and it's the ninth time they've won at least one game. Only eight of the league's 13 teams make the postseason field.
Illinois (25-26) opened the scoring with a run in the top of the fifth inning, but the Hoosiers answered right back with two runs in the bottom of the innings. With one out, Indiana second baseman Tyler Cerny doubled and scored on single up the middle by catcher Peter Serruto base hit. Serruto scored on an RBI fielder's choice from freshman right fielder Devin Taylor.
In the eighth inning, Indiana added two more runs after Taylor singled and moved to second on a Brock Tibbitts walk. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners up, Josh Pyne grounded out and Taylor raced home to beat the throw at the plate. Hunter Jessee followed with an RBI single to put Indiana ahead 4-1
The insurance runs came in handy because the Hoosiers allowed two unearned runs in the ninth inning, but hung on to advance.
Cerny, Serruto and redshirt junior Bobby Whalen all had two hits for the Hoosiers. They are now 3-1 against Illinois this season.
Big Ten Baseball Tournament Schedule
All games are at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb. All games are televised on the Big Ten Network.
Tuesday, May 23 results
- Game 1: No. 3 Iowa 13, No. 6 Michigan 3
- Game 2: No. 2 Indiana 4, No. 7 Illinois 3
- Game 3: No. 1 Maryland 3, No. 8 Michigan State 2
Wednesday, May 24 games
- Game 4: No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 5 Rutgers, 3 p.m. ET.
- Game 5: Michigan vs. Illinois, 8 p.m. ET.
Thursday, May 25 games
- Game 6: Michigan State vs. Nebraska-Rutgers loser, 11 a.m. ET.
- Game 7: Iowa vs. Indiana, 3 p.m. ET.
- Game 8: Maryland vs. Nebraska-Rutgers winner, 7 p.m. ET.
Friday, May 26 games
- Game 9: Loser Game 7 vs Winner Game 5, 3 p.m. ET.
- Game 10: Loser Game 8 vs Winner Game 6, 8 p.m. ET.
Saturday, May 27 games
- Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs Winner Game 9, 10 a.m. ET.
- Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs Winner Game 10, 2 p.m. ET.
- Game 13: Winner Game 11 vs Loser Game 11, 6 p.m. ET.
- Game 14: Winner Game 12 vs Loser Game 12, 10 p.m. ET.
Sunday, May 28 game
- Game 11: Championship game, 3 p.m. ET
Related stories on Indiana baseball
- DEVIN TAYLOR HONORED: Indiana's Big Ten postseason awards were highlighted by Devin Taylor winning Freshman of the Year and six other Hoosiers earned honors. CLICK HERE
- INDIANA VS. ILLINOIS BASEBALL BIG TEN TOURNAMENT Indiana starts its postseason baseball journey on Tuesday as the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, taking on Illinois at 3 p.m. ET in Omaha, Neb. Lefty Ben Seiler starts for the Hoosiers in the double-elimination tournament. Indiana went 2-1 vs. Illinois this season. CLICK HERE