| Probable Starting Pitchers |
| Day |
Illinois |
SIUE |
| Tue. 6 p.m. CT |
LHP Reece Marley (0-0, 21.60) |
RHP Gabriel Nutter (0-1, 5.40) |
PREVIEW
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. --Â Illinois baseball wraps up its four-game homestand with a midweek contest vs. SIUE. First pitch on Tuesday is set for 6 p.m. CT. The Illini have gone 11-2 at Illinois Field this season and are outscoring opponents 138-68.
The Orange and Blue earned a 15-1 run-rule victory in seven innings on Sunday over Indiana to claim a second-straight series win over the Hoosiers and the first in Champaign since 2019.
LHP Reece Marley (0-0, 21.60) is set to make the first start of his Illinois career.
SERIES HISTORY
vs. SIUE
- Record: 6-1 (H: 4-0, A: 1-1, N: 1-0)
- Last: W, 7-6 (10) (4/1/09 at Champaign)
- Illini have won last five matchups...four of which played at home
- Just the second meeting overall since 1998
NOTES
ILLINI SET FOR MIDWEEK CONTEST VS. SIUE
Illinois baseball concludes a four-game homestand and stretch of eight games of the last nine at Illinois Field with a midweek contest vs. in-state foe SIUE.
Scott Beatty will call the action for the Illini on the Busey Bank Illini Sports Network (WDWS 1400-AM/93.9FM).
All three games can be streamed on B1G+.
Streaming, audio, and stats links are also available at FightingIllini.com.
ABOUTÂ THE OPPONENT
SIUE comes into the contest with a 15-19 record, coming off of a weekend series win at Lindenwood, taking two of three games from the Lions.
The Cougars have gone 8-9 on the road this season and have also gone 2-4 in midweek action.
OF Daniel Grierer leads SIUE at the plate, slashing .313/.358/.348, good for a .706 OPS. Grierer has tallied 20 runs scored, one double, one home run and 15 RBI. INF Mack Mitchell paces the Cougars in the power department, leading the team in home runs (10) and RBI (29).
RHP Tim Teixeria is lone qualified arm, going 2-2 with a 6.13 ERA (27 ER/39.2 IP) and a team-high 39 strikeouts. RHP Liam McKillop leads relief arms, going 2-0 with a 3.19 ERA (11 ER/31.0 IP) and 37 strikeouts in 16 bullpen appearances.
SIUE went 21-34-1 last season with a 12-15 mark in OVC play.
ALL-TIME SERIES INFO
Illinois leads in the all-time series 6-1 and have gone 4-0 in games played in Champaign.Â
The two sides were set to play last season but the game was canceled due to inclement weather.
The Illini were victorious in the last meeting between the two programs, 7-6 in 10 innings, on April 1, 2009.
Illinois has won five-straight contests in the series overall, dating back to 1984.
INDIANA WEEKEND RECAP
Illinois took two of three games over Indiana over the weekend to claim its second-straight series win over the Hoosiers and the first in Champaign since 2009.
The Illini came away with 4-2 win in Friday's opener before suffering a 12-3 defeat on Saturday. The Orange and Blue turned in an emphatic victory on Sunday's finale, a 15-1 run-rule triumph in seven innings.
As a team, Illinois slashed .296/.405/.469, scoring 22 runs on four doubles, two triples and three home runs, while drawing 14 walks.
Vytas Valincius led the offense by going 6-for-13 (.462) with four runs scored, three doubles, one home run and 10 RBI over the three games. In Sunday's finale, the senior doubled a career-high three times and collected a career-high seven RBI. Kyle Schupmann also went 6-for-13 (.462) over the weekend, scoring twice and adding a home run and four RBI.
Illini arms went 2-1 with a 5.04 ERA (14 ER/25.0 IP), amassing 13 strikeouts.
Tyler Schmitt kicked off the series with a quality start, tossing 7.0 innings and allowing one run, unearned, on three hits, punching out six. Regan Hall tossed the first complete game of his career on Sunday, spinning 7.0 innings of one-run ball, giving up just four hits. Zach Bates earned his third save of the season by allowing one run in two innings of work on Friday, striking out three.
HOME COOKING
After going 20-3 in 2024 at Illinois Field, the Illini have continued their stellar play at home, beginning the 2025 campaign 11-2 in Champaign.
Illinois is outscoring its opponents 138-68 in its 13 home contests, averaging 10.6 runs per game.
The Fighting Illini have scored at least 10 runs in eight of those ball games after having 14 such games during the 2024 season.
V FOR VALINCIUS
Vytas Valincius continued his surge at the plate against Indiana, going 6-for-13 (.462) with four runs scored, three doubles, a home run and 10 RBI.
Valincius began the weekend by going 2-for-4 with a run, home run and three RBI and capped it by going 3-for-5 with three runs, three doubles and seven RBI.
Valincius enters Tuesday on an eight-game hitting streak, where he has gone 17-for-32 (.531) with seven doubles, a home run and 15 RBI. He has six multi-hit games during that span, raising his season average from .305 to .362.
The Lockport, Ill., native, now has 45 RBI on the season, which leads the Illini and ranks fourth among Big Ten hitters.
KINGS OF THE HILL
The Fighting Illini got another solid turn through their starting rotation against the Hoosiers over the weekend, helping Illinois to a series win.
Tyler Schmitt fired the best start of his Illinois career in Friday's opener, earning the win by tossing 7.0 innings and allowing one run, unearned, on three hits to go along with a season-high six strikeouts. It marked his second quality start of the season and first since Feb. 22 at Texas State.
Regan Hall twirled his second-straight quality start, turning in a 7.0-inning complete game in Sunday's finale. Hall allowed one run on four hits to go along with a strikeout.
HALL MONITOR
Regan Hall tossed his third quality start of the season, and second-straight, in Sunday's series finale vs. Indiana.
Hall earned the first complete game of his career by tossing 7.0 innings and allowing just one run on four hits to go along with one walk and one strikeout. He is the first Illini pitcher to turn in a complete-game effort since Jack Wenninger (9.0 IP) on April 29, 2023, at Ohio State.
In his last two starts, the Albuquerque, N.M., native, has gone 2-0 with a 0.68 ERA (1 ER/13.1 IP) allowing just eight hits and striking out seven. He has also lowered his season ERA from 9.00 to 5.77.
CLUTCH HITTING
Through 33 games this season, the Illini have delivered in big spots at the plate, posting a team average of .310 with runners in scoring position as well as a team average of .317 with two outs in an inning. This has led to a total of 131 two-out RBI, which accounts for 46.3 percent (131/283) of runs scored by the offense this season.
Jack Zebig leads the team with 19 hits with runners in scoring position and also leads the squad with 23 two-out RBI. Kyle Schupmann, Vytas Valincius and Zebig are all tied for the team lead with 17 hits with two outs.
Illinois has also been successful at moving runners over in their plate appearances, doing so at a .515 clip (363/705).
CATCH THEM IF YOU CAN
Through 33 games this season, the Illini have stolen 50 bases in 58 attempts doubling their 2024 total of 25 stolen bases.
2025 marks the first time since 2019 (59) that Illinois has swiped at least 50 bags in a single season.
As a team, Illinois has stolen a game-high six bases three times this season, doing so on Feb. 15 vs. Abilene Christian, Feb. 25 vs. Aurora and April 6 vs. Maryland.
Nick Groves leads the Illini with 12 stolen bases in 15 attempts, which also ranks tied for second among Big Ten players.
On Feb. 25 vs. Aurora, Cameron Chee-Aloy set the single-game program record with five stolen bases in the contest.
Vytas Valincius (6-for-6), Greg LaChance (5-for-5), Collin Jennings (5-for-5), Kyle Schupmann (3-for-3) and Jack Zebig (2-for-2) are also all perfect in multiple stolen base attempts.
AT ILLINOIS STATE RECAP
Illinois had its season-long four-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday when Illinois State handed the Illini a 14-4 run-rule defeat, in eight innings, at Duffy Bass Field on Tuesday.
Collin Jennings and Jack Zebig tallied RBI hits in the contest while Vytas Valincius put together a two-hit effort.
Payton Hutchings worked 1.2 scoreless innings in relief with Nolan Girard, Christian Morel and Ryan Daly also posting scoreless outings.
QUICK STARTS
In all three games of its series vs. Maryland from April 5-6, Illinois got off to some fast starts, scoring run in the first inning of each game while also keeping the Terrapins off the board.
In the doubleheader opener on April 5, the Illini plated a pair of runs and in the doubleheader nightcap and the finale on April 6, the Orange and Blue jumped out to 5-0 leads.
WALK IT OFF
The Illini earned back-to-back walk-off run-rule victories over the Terrapins to earn a series sweep from April 5-6.
In the doubleheader nightcap on April 5, Jack Zebig crushed his second walk-off home run of the season, a three-run blast in the eighth inning to give Illinois a 15-3 win.
On April 6, Collin Jennings put the finishing touches on the series sweep with a three-run shot of his own in the seventh to give the Orange and Blue the 11-0 victory.
Illinois earned its first walk-off victory of the season in the second game of the doubleheader on March 15 vs. Valparaiso thanks to Zebig's seventh-inning grand slam to lift the Illini to a 14-4 run-rule win over the Beacons.
The Orange and Blue recorded four walk-off wins last season, three of which came via a run rule.
D1BASEBALL WEEK 6 RANKINGS
Two Fighting Illini found themselves on D1Baseball player ranking lists in the outlet's week six update in late March.
Jack Zebig is ranked as the No. 44 shortstop in the country and Kyle Schupmann is ranked to the No. 45 third basemen.
Zebig, at the time of ranking, started all 22 games at short, has slashed .361/.476/.651 with six home runs and a team-high 29 RBI, which ranks 10th among Big Ten players.
Kyle Schupmann, at the time of ranking, appeared and started in 20 games during the campaign, all at third base. The Geneva, Ill., native, is slashing .325/.419/.675 with a team-high seven home runs and has also driven in 20 runs.
Neither player was featured in D1Baseball's preseason rankings.
2024 B1G CHAMPS
For the 31st time in program history, Illinois was crowned Big Ten champions after its 9-4 victory over Purdue on May 17, 2024. The Illini were able to claim an outright title with Nebraska's loss to Michigan State on May 18, 2024. Their 18-10 triumph later that day over the Boilermakers would have also solidified an outright title had the Huskers won.
The conference title was the program's third in the Dan Hartleb era (2006-pres.) and the first since 2015. Hartleb's three Big Ten championships are fifth-most in program history.
Illinois 31 conference titles are second-most all-time in the Big Ten.
ILLINI PLAY LONG BALL
During the 2024 campaign, the Fighting Illini launched 104 home runs, setting a new program record and shattering the previous of 91 (1998) in the process.
Illinois' 104 home runs were the most among Big Ten teams, slugging 21 more than second-placed Indiana (83). It also ranked 28th nationally and ninth among teams that played fewer than 60 games.
The Orange and Blue averaged 1.86 home runs per game, which was the 19th-highest mark in the country and the best in the Big Ten.
Five players tallied double-digit home runs last season (Brody Harding, Ryan Moerman, Jacob Schroeder, Vytas Valincius, Drake Westcott) and were the only team in the conference with more than four players in double figures.
The Illini return 54.8 percent (57/104) of their home run production in 2025.
FOUR IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
Illinois slugged at least four home runs in a single game seven times last season, winning each one of those contests.
The Illini did so for the first time in the 2025 campaign in the first game of the doubleheader vs. Valparaiso on March 15, but suffered a rare defeat when hitting that mark.
The Illini crushed a season-high five home runs in the second game of Friday's doubleheader vs. Northwestern to defeat the Wildcats 11-6.
Illinois had eight such games in 2023, going 7-1 in those ballgames. Since 2018, Illinois is 19-3 when they hit at least four homers in a single game.
DAN HARTLEB'S 20TH SEASON
Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb begins his 20th season at the helm of the program in 2025.
The winningest coach in Illini baseball history has currently amassed 587Â wins, three Big Ten championships, one Big Ten Tournament title, five NCAA Regional appearances and one NCAA Super Regional Appearance.
Along with being named Big Ten Coach of the Year two times, Hartleb was named Big Coach of the Decade (2010s), by D1Baseball.
As he enters his 35th season overall at Illinois, Hartleb has seen 148 players have earned Big Ten All-Conference honors under his watch, with 47 of those players earning first-team selections. He's also coached a total of 27 All-Americans and 96 players who have gone on to play professionally.
Among active Big Ten coaches, Hartleb is one of two coaches that have spent at least 20 seasons as head coach at their current school (John Savage, UCLA, 21st season in 2025).Â
HOME SWEET HOME
Illinois finished the 2024 season 20-3 at Illinois Field after taking two of three games from Iowa from May 10-12, 2024.
The Illini also went 8-0 during its season-long homestand from April 9-23, 2024.
It was the first time since 2015 that Illinois won at least 20 home games, with the Illini's .869 winning percentage is the highest mark in program history since 1940 (8-1, .889).
The Orange and Blue were victorious in all six home series last season, earning sweeps over Penn State, Northern Illinois and Northwestern. Overall, Illinois has won nine-straight home series, dating back to 2023.
Following the sweep of Northwestern from April 19-21, 2024, the Illini had won 12-straight Big Ten home games dating back to last season, four series sweeps, which was the longest such streak since the Orange and Blue won 18-straight such games from May 2, 2014, to March 26, 2016.
The Fighting Illini also won their home opener 12-2 over Eastern Illinois at Illinois Field on Feb. 27, 2024. Illinois is 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.
OPENING DAY HISTORY
Illinois is 6-3 in their last nine season openers, following 2025's curtain-raising defeat to Abilene Christian on Feb. 14...the Illini snapped a brief two-game losing streak in season openers in their 9-6 victory over Youngstown State in 2023.
DAN HARTLEB, THE WINNINGEST COACH ATÂ ILLINOIS
Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb earned win No. 519 on April 2, 2023, against Michigan, passing Lee Eilbracht for the most in program history...currently has 587Â career wins.
CLEAN FIELDING
The Illini led the Big Ten in fielding percentage during conference play (.986) last season for the third-straight year and for the fifth time in the last six seasons overall.
The Illini posted a .979 fielding percentage overall and have posted a .970 overall fielding percentage or better in 12 of the last 14 seasons.
NEW YEAR, NEW FACES
Illinois has 17 returners and 18 newcomers on the 2024 roster.
  » Thirteen newcomers are transfers: LHP Zach Bates (Iowa Central CC), RHP Ryan Daly (St. Francis), RHP Mitch Dye (Lincoln Land CC), OF Nick Groves (Niagara), C/1B Will Johannes (Madison College), INF Greg LaChance (Jefferson College), LHP Reece Marley (Case Western Reserve), RHP Christian Morel (Tampa Unviersity), INF/RHP Grant Ross (Madison College), RHP Tyler Schmitt (UW-La Crosse), INF Kyle Schupmann (Cincinnati), OF Alexander Wright (George Washington), INF Jack Zebig (Marryville University)
ILLINI TRIO EARN BIG TEN PRESEASON HONORS
A trio of Illini baseball players were selected Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch, the conference announced on Feb. 12.
Right-hander Ben Plumley along with catcher Jacob Schroeder and first baseman Drake Westcott, were all named to the list.
Plumley is coming off of a breakout 2024 season, where he amassed 33 strikeouts in 35.1 innings of work last season over 23 relief appearances. He had a season-long six-game span (8.1 IP) without allowing an earned run from May 10 to June 1, striking out eight batters compared to three walks.
Schroeder, who earned 2024 College Baseball Foundation All-American Second Team and All-Big Ten First Team honors slashed .306/.434/.613 to go along with seven doubles, 14 home runs and 41 RBI. Schroeder ranked tied for ninth in the Big Ten in home runs and also ranked among conference leaders in slugging (8th) and OPS (1.047, 10th).Â
Westcott slashed .290/.421/.571 to go along with 11 doubles, 16 home runs and 52 RBI. He ranked among conference leaders in walks (T-3rd, 47) and home runs (T-4th). Westcott enters the 2025 campaign with 34 career dingers in the Orange and Blue, 14 away from matching Scott Spiezio's (1991-93) program record of 48.
ONES TO WATCH
D1Baseball Big Ten Top 2025 MLB Draft
Prospects: No. 19 RHP Tyler Schmitt, No. 22 OF Nick Groves, No. 37 RHP Julius Sanchez
D1Baseball Big Ten Top 2026 MLB Draft Prospects: No. 10 OF Cameron Chee-Aloy
Perfect Game Preseason All-Conference Team: 1B Drake Westcott
Perfect Game Big Ten Top 2025 MLB Draft
Prospects: No. 30 RHP Julius Sanchez, No. 38 Ben Plumley
Perfect Game Big Ten Top 2027 MLB Draft Prospects: No. 16 OF/LHP Brayden Mazzacano
ILLINI BASEBALL INKS SEVEN TO 2025 CLASS
"I am extremely excited about the group of great athletes that we have signed to join our Illini family," head coach Dan Hartleb said.Â
"We feel as if this group has the ability to help us to pursue future championships. In the changing times of college athletics, I feel as though our staff did a tremendous job of identifying great athletes and helping to secure their talents which will ensure our success moving forward."
Michael Farina / INF / Mundelein, Ill.
Aidan Flinn / LHP / Mokena, Ill.
Lucas Krebs / SS / Edwardsville, Ill.
Ryan Ohm / RHP / Rochester, Minn.
AJ Putty / 1B / McHenry, Ill.
Jack Wheeler / 3B/RHP / Morris, Ill.
Ike Young / RHP / Cisco, Ill.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Illini hit the road for a three-game Big Ten series at Washington. First pitch in Friday's opener is set for 9:05 p.m. CT.
