Illinois Falls to Nebraska, Finishes Fourth in Big Ten

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Bren Spillane hit his 22nd home run of the season but the Illinois baseball team dropped an 11-8 decision to Nebraska at Illinois Field to end the regular season. Illinois heads to the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

Illinois (31-18, 15-9 Big Ten) will play Indiana at 9 p.m. CT Wednesday in the Big Ten Tournament opener. 

Michael Massey and Michael Michalak led Illinois with two hits and Spillane and Jack Yalowitz homered. Seven Illini scored runs but the Huskers bats outslugged Illinois on a day with the wind blowing out. 

Spillane all but wrapped up the race to the Big Ten Player of the Year. He finishes the regular season with a .407 batting average, 22 home runs, 57 RBIs, a .944 slugging percentage and .512 on-base percentage. Spillane would be Illinois' 10th Big Ten Player of the Year and first player of the year since David Kerian in 2015.

Nebraska (23-29, 7-15 Big Ten) was led by Angelo Altavilla's four-hit day. The Huskers had five hits go for extra bases, including homers from Zac Repinski and Keegan Watson. 

Big Ten Tournament Schedule - Wednesday, May 23
9 a.m. CT - No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 6 Iowa
1 p.m. CT - No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 7 Ohio State
5 p.m. CT - No. 1 Minnesota vs. No. 8 Michigan State
9 p.m. CT - No. 4 Illinois vs. No. 5 Indiana

Notes

• Illinois is 30-11 when scoring three or more runs.
• Illinois is 20-5 when scoring first.
• Ben Troike has reached base in all 49 games this season. His current reached base streak is 53 dating back to the final five games of last season, the second-longest active streak in the nation.
• Bren Spillane's 22 home runs are the second-most in Illinois history behind Josh Klimek's 26 in 1996. 
• Bren Spillane moved to fourth on Illinois' single-season total bases list with 153. Josh Klimek owns the record of 188 in 1996.
• Bren Spillane's slugging percentage is .944, the best in the nation. The last NCAA player to finish a year at .944 or better was Rickie Weeks of Southern University (.995) in 2002.
• Bren Spillane is on pace to break Illinois' single-season and career slugging percentage records.
• Bren Spillane is on pace to break the Big Ten record for slugging in a season (.913, Darrin Fletcher, Illinois, 1987). 
• Illinois drew 4,007 fans to Illinois Field for the three-game series, only 87 fans short of the 20th best series attendance in the facility's history.