Baseball Gameday: at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – With five straight winning weekends entering the fourth weekend of Big Ten play, the Indiana baseball program will travel to Illinois for a three-game series at Illinois Field. The series kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on Friday (April 14) on the Big Ten Network.

The first two games of the series will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network, as Indiana (23-10, 7-2 B1G) and Illinois (14-15, 3-6 B1G) were two of the preseason contenders for the Big Ten. The Hoosiers won a 16-13 decision over Ball State in a midweek contest and enter the weekend on a three-game winning streak. Illinois dropped a series at Northwestern last weekend, before a 16-5 midweek win at Illinois State.

Gameday Info
Friday, April 14, 2023 | 8 p.m. ET
IU: Seti Manase, RHP, Jr.
UI: Riley Gowens, RHP, R-Jr.

TV: Big Ten Network
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/3AfJQKF

Saturday, April 15, 2023 | 6 p.m. ET
IU: Luke Sinnard, RHP, So.
UI: Jake Swartz, RHP, Fr.

TV: Big Ten Network
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/3AfJQKF

Sunday, April 16, 2023 | 2 p.m. ET
IU: TBA
UI: Jack Wenninger, RHP, Jr.

Live Video: bit.ly/3oasJHf
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/3AfJQKF

Quick Hitter

Friday's meeting between Indiana and Illinois will be the 209th meeting all time between the two programs. Indiana will look to continue the trend of two straight series wins over the Fighting Illini.
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The Hoosiers have won 18 of 19 home games in 2023, including 15-straight to open the season. That marks the longest home winning streak in Bart Kaufman Field history and the second-longest streak in program history.
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Freshman Devin Taylor began his 22-game reached base streak in his first career start at Texas (2/25) and had 27 hits, 19 walks and four hit-by-pitch in that span for a .500 on-base percentage.
Sophomore Luke Sinnard struck out 12 Iowa batters over six scoreless innings for his second career double-digit strikeout game of the season.
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Senior Hunter Jessee carried a 34-game reached base streak between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, which marked a career long for the left-handed hitter and the second longest such streak since at least 2005.
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Senior Phillip Glasser enters the weekend with a 33-game reached base and has 16 multi-hit games in that span.
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Glasser is also among the top-50 active hitters in a bevy of categories, including No. 6 with 239 career hits.
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After its first Big Ten series sweep since 2021, sophomore Brock Tibbitts and freshman Devin Taylor were honored by the Big Ten with Player and Co-Freshman of the Week accolades, respectively.
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Head coach Jeff Mercer became the eighth IU skipper to reach 100 victories in the cream and crimson with a series finale win at Auburn on February 19, 2023.
FULL BIO ON PAGE 18

Scouting the Opponent

Illinois enters with a 14-15 record overall and a 3-6 mark in Big Ten play. The Fighting Illini have faced Nebraska, Michigan and Northwestern to start conference play and posted a 1-2 record in each of the three series.
Ryan Moreman and Cam McDonald lead the team a multitude of categories, as Moreman owns a team-best .219 average, 25 runs scored and 30 RBIs. McDonald has a team-best 40 hits and nine doubles to go along with 25 RBIs and 24 runs scored.
As an offense, Illinois ranks No. 3 in the Big Ten and tied for No. 47 nationally with 46 home runs.
Riley Gowens is among a group of Big Ten pitchers with a conference-best eight starts and sits No. 2 in the conference and No. 43 nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.30).
In 256 innings of work as a pitching staff, Illinois walks just 3.80 batter per nine innings to rank No. 2 in the B1G and No. 49 nationally. However, the staff has hit 53 batters - the second most in the Big Ten.

Inside the Series

With the 209th meeting all-time on tap for Friday (April 14) in Champaign, Illinois, the Fighting Illini hold the edge in the all-time series 120-87-1.
In terms of home field advantage, of the 99 previous meetings at Illinois, the Fighting Illini hod a 65-34 edge. Illinois is 50-49-1 all-time at Indiana and the two teams have split four neutral site meetings.
The line tie in the series came in 1945, a 6-6 tie at Indiana on April 28.
Of the 208 previous meetings, 57 of those have been decided by one run. Only 15 of them have been won by double figures.
In 2022, Indiana won the regular season series 2-1 with wins in the Friday and Sunday games. The two teams also met at the Big Ten Tournament, an 8-1 victory for the Hoosiers.
Over the last 10 seasons (2014-present), Indiana and Illinois have met in seven of those. Indiana has won the series on four occasions.
The last sweep in the series was Illinois at home in 2011.

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Players Mentioned

Phillip Glasser

Hunter Jessee

Seti Manase

Luke Sinnard

Devin Taylor

Brock Tibbitts

Indiana University Athletics