| Probable Starting Pitchers |
| Day |
Illinois |
Western Illinois |
| Tue. 6Â p.m. CT |
LHP Sam Reed (1-1, 10.18) |
TBA |
PREVIEW
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois baseball concludes its season-long eight-game homestand with a midweek contest vs. Western Illinois. First pitch from Illinois Field is set for 6 p.m. CT.
The Orange and Blue are coming off of a sweep of Northwestern over the weekend and are winners in seven-straight games. The Illini also improved to 7-0 during the homestand and are 14-1 in front of the home fans this season.
LHP Sam Reed (1-1, 10.18) is set to make his eighth appearance of the season and his fourth start overall.
SERIES HISTORY
vs. Western Illinois
- Record: 30-9 (H: 24-3, A: 3-4, N: 3-2)
- Last: W, 7-1 (5/5/09 at Champaign, Ill.)
- Illini have won 14-straight in series, all in Champaign
- Illinois last loss at home in series was April 11, 1991
NOTES
MIDWEEK ACTION VS. WESTERN ILLINOIS
Illinois baseball concludes a season-long eight-game homestand with a midweek showdown vs. in-state rival Western Illinois.
The game can be streamed on B1G+.
Scott Beatty will call the action for the Illini on the Busey Bank Illini Sports Network (1400 AM/93.9FM). Streaming, audio, and stats links are also available at FightingIllini.com.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Western Illinois enters the contest 8-27, falling in two of three games in its weekend series vs. SIUE in Macomb, Ill. The Leathernecks have gone 5-17 in road contests this season.
INF J.R. Heavilin leads Western Illinois at the plate with a .305 average to go along with eight doubles, five home runs and 23 RBI. Among starters, LHP Tyler Kapraun leads on the mound, going 2-3 with an 8.64 ERA (48 ER/50.0 IP) to go along with 40 strikeouts in 11 games, starts.Â
The Leathernecks went 12-40 last season, including an 8-16 record in Big Ten play.
ALL-TIME SERIES INFO
Illinois leads in the all-time series 30-9 and have gone 24-3 in games played in Champaign. The Illini were victorious in the last meeting between the two programs on May 5, 2009, 7-1.
Illinois has won 14-straight matchups overall, dating back to 1992.
WEEKEND ROUND-UP
Illinois captured its 18th win in the last 21 tries with an 11-7 victory over Northwestern on Sunday to secure a series sweep, pushing its winning streak to seven games.
Connor Milton led the team in average over the weekend, going 9-for-12 (.750) with five runs scored, two doubles, three home runs and eight RBI. Coltin Quagliano also posted a big weekend at the plate, going 7-for-12 (.583) with five runs, a double and five RBI.
The Illini posted an overall team slash of .380/.446/.610 against the Wildcats, scoring 23 runs and homering five times. Illinois has now won six-straight games against Northwestern played in Champaign.
Jack Crowder opened the series with his fourth quality start, second-straight overall, of the season on Friday, allowing two earned runs on four hits over 6.2 innings of work, tallying seven strikeouts. Cooper Omans picked up his fourth win of the season on Saturday, also tossing a quality start. Omans worked a season-high 7.0 innings and picked up four strikeouts, while allowing one earned run on two hits. Regan Hall turned in a stellar outing in relief on Sunday, allowing just two earned runs on one hit over 5.0 innings of work.
The Fighting Illini improved to 14-1 at Illinois Field this season and earned their fourth-straight sweep of a Big Ten opponent at home, dating back to last season.
The pair combined to go 6-for-8 with seven runs scored, six home runs, 13 RBI and two walks in the Illini's 21-11 victory.
A MILLY
Connor Milton had a stellar three games against Northwestern, going 9-for-12 (.750) with five runs scored, two doubles, three home runs and eight RBI.
Milton began the series with 2-for-3 performance on Friday, collecting an RBI.Â
On Saturday, the senior turned in the best game of his career, going 4-for-4 with three runs, a double, two home runs and four RBI. In the Illini's 7-1 victory, Milton set career-high marks in hits, runs, home runs, RBI and total bases (11). It was also the first time in his career that he had multi-hit performances in consecutive games.
In Sunday's series finale, Milton went 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a double, home run and three RBI. It marked the first time in the Champaign, native's career that he homered in consecutive contests and it is also the first time with back-to-back games with at least three hits.
The three-game hitting streak also matches his career-high mark.
GOOD OMANS
Cooper Omans turned in one of his best outings of the season on Saturday vs. Northwestern, earning his fourth win of the season by tossing his second quality start of the season. Omans twirled 7.0 innings and allowed just one run on two hits to go along with four strikeouts.
After allowing a base hit to start the game, the graduate transfer retired 16-straight batters. Omans never allowed a runner to reach third base during his outing.
Omans has gone 3-1 with a 3.64 ERA (17 ER/42.0 IP) with 39 strikeouts in his eight starts, with the Illini going 5-3 in those games.
The Oviedo, Fla., native's overall ERA of 3.55 ranks sixth-lowest in the Big Ten among qualifiers and his opponent average of .201 is tied for the fifth-lowest mark among qualifiers. He also ranks among conference qualifiers in hits allowed (33, 4th), runs allowed (19, T-3rd) and earned runs allowed (18, 4th).
HOME SWEET HOME
Illinois improved to 14-1 at Illinois Field this season following its series sweep of Northwestern over the weekend.Â
The Orange and Blue have won seven-straight in Champaign, which is tied for the fifth-longest home winning streak in the country.
The Illini have also now won 12-straight Big Ten home games dating back to last season, three series sweeps, which is the longest such streak since the Orange and Blue won 18-straight such games from May 2, 2014, to March 26, 2016.
Illinois went 11-8 at home during the 2023 campaign.
The Fighting Illini also won their home opener 12-2 over Eastern Illinois at Illinois Field on Feb. 27. Illinois is now 8-3 in its last 11 home openers and the 12 runs scored are the most since also scoring 12 in the 2021 home opener vs. Northwestern.
COMEBACK KIDS
During Illinois' series sweep over Northwestern, the Illini trailed at one point in two of the ballgames. In the series opener on Friday, Illinois overturned a two-run deficit. In the series finale on Sunday, the Illini erased a 1-0 deficit.
Illinois has also overcome two 6-0 holes this season, on March 29 vs. Penn State and April 14 vs. Northern Illinois.
In total, the Illini have won 13 games this season in which they have trailed.
Q
Coltin Quagliano continued to dominate at the plate over the weekend, going 7-for-12 (.583) with five runs, a double and five RBI.
In Sunday's series finale, Quagliano recorded the first four-hit game of his career and also drove in three runs.
The Kewanee, Ill., native extended his career-long hitting streak to 15 games and has gone 29-for-57 (.509) with six doubles, three home runs and 22 RBI during that span. He also has multi-hit performances in 10 of those 15 games to boost his season average from .229 to .343.
Quagliano leads the team with 40 RBI on the year, which is tied for seventh-most in the Big Ten. During his current hitting streak, he has brought home runs in 12 of 15 games, including 10 games with an RBI in his last 11.
CROWDER SHINES
Jack Crowder turned in his second-straight quality start on Friday to help Illinois to a 5-3 win over Northwestern. Crowder worked 6.2 innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits while striking out seven.
It is the second time this season that Crowder has whiffed at least seven batters in a start and it is the second time this season that he has worked into the seventh inning.
The Illini are 7-3 in games that he starts, including winners in six-straight straight.
CHASING HISTORY
The 2023 Fighting Illini slugged 89 home runs, just two shy of matching the program record of 91, set in 1998.
Through 36 games this season, Illinois has blasted 66 home runs, needing 26 home runs over 14 games (1.9 HR/G) to break the record.
The 1998 squad had 45 home runs after 36 games and the 2023 team had 58 home runs at the same mark.
UP NEXT
Illinois returns to Big Ten play with a three-game weekend series at Maryland. First pitch in Friday's series opener is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT. The ballgame will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
