| Probable Starting Pitchers |
| Day |
Illinois |
Michigan State |
| Fri., 3 p.m. CT |
RHP Cole Bellair (1-1, 9.00) |
LHP Alex Troop (3-1, 1.93) |
| Fri., 6 p.m. CT |
RHP Ty Weber (1-1, 3.45) |
RHP Ethan Landon (0-1, 6.00) |
| Sun., 2 p.m. CT |
RHP Luke Shilling (1-1, 5.87) |
RHP Andrew Gonzalez (1-1, 4.02) |
SCHEDULE CHANGE: The first two games will be played as a doubleheader Friday at 3 p.m. CT. The third game remains scheduled for 2 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network, although that plan could change with the forecast. Saturday and Sunday both remain options for Game 3, but the teams' priority will be for the originally scheduled 2 p.m. CT Sunday slot for BTN.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Big Ten play starts this weekend for the Illinois baseball team when Michigan State comes to town Friday-Sunday. All three games of the series have free admission, like every game at Illinois Field, and Sunday's matchup is scheduled to be televised live by Big Ten Network.
Illinois (6-12) is coming off a 7-1 midweek win over Illinois State. The Illini used six pitchers to combine on a three-hitter to beat the Redbirds.
Freshman Cyrillo Watson, one of the many underclassmen to contribute to this Illini team, picked up the win Tuesday in his first career start. Illinois has had over 75% of its hits and innings pitched come from freshmen or sophomores.
Michigan State (12-5) has put together one of the more impressive starts to the season of any team in the Big Ten. The Spartans enter the weekend ranked No. 19 in the NCAA's RPI and have a 7-3 record in true road games. MSU's only road losses came to No. 7 Clemson and No. 8 South Carolina (twice).
The Spartans are hitting .304 as a team, the best mark in the Big Ten, and also lead the league in runs with 7.8 per game.
NOTES
• Illinois was one of the charter members of Big Ten baseball, playing during the 1896 season along with Chicago, Michigan and Wisconsin.
• Illinois is second all-time with 30 Big Ten titles, behind only Michigan's 35.
• Illinois is 50-20 (.714) in Big Ten games in the last three years. The Illini are 23-5 in its last 25 Big Ten games at Illinois Field dating back to 2014.
• Illinois is 0-9 when scoring five or fewer runs.
• Jack Yalowitz has been the Illini's offensive leader, ranking third in the Big Ten in batting average (.389), third in slugging (.653) and eighth in on-base percentage (.453). He's also third in the league in runs (18), third in hits (28), third in RBIs (22), third in triples (2), seventh in home runs (4), second in total bases (47) and seventh in stolen bases (7).
• Yalowitz ranks 28th in the nation in batting average among underclassmen. He ranks 100th overall in Division I.
• Three Illini regulars are batting over .300 -- Jack Yalowitz (.389), Casey Dodge (.333) and Pat McInerney (.319)
• Illinois has already hit 19 home runs in 2017 after hitting 27 in all of 2016.
• The Illini ranked 30th in the nation and first in the Big Ten in home runs per game (1.06) entering the weekend.
• Illinois is ninth in the nation with 1.22 in double plays per game entering the week.
• Michael Massey is the second toughest to strikeout in the nation among freshmen (18.3 AB/SO) and Ben Troike is sixth (15.3 AB/SO).
• 131 of Illinois' 169 hits have been by freshmen or sophomores (77.5%). Freshmen have 37 hits, all by Massey and Troike.
• 138 of Illinois' 155 innings pitched have been by freshmen or sophomores (89%).
UP NEXT
After this weekend, Illinois still has four more games in its 12-game homestand. The Illini host Bradley (Tuesday) and Indiana State (Friday-Sunday) next week.
