OMAHA, Neb. -- [11] Illinois baseball (30-24) was eliminated from the 2025 Big Ten Baseball Tournament following an 8-6 defeat to [2] UCLA (40-15), today at Charles Schwab Field.
Drake Westcott went 2-for-5 with a run, home run and an RBI, and Coltin Quagliano (2-for-3) and Vytas Valincius (1-for-4) each had two RBI in the ballgame.
Regan Hall took no decision in his start on the mound, battling over 5.1 frames and allowing six runs on four hits to go along with five strikeouts.
HOW IT HAPPENED
For the second-straight game the Illini got on the board their first time up to bat, with Valincius driving in a run on a sacrifice fly. Valincius then doubled the lead with an RBI-single in the third.
The Bruins took their first lead of the game with five runs in the third but Quagliano got one of those runs back in the fourth on his first RBI-single of the contest.
The Orange and Blue made it 5-5 in the sixth thanks to Westcott's lead-off solo shot and Quagliano scoring on a wild pitch later in the frame.
UCLA pushed a run across in the bottom of the sixth to retake the lead but Illinois battled back to make it 6-6 in the seventh thanks to Quagliano's second RBI-single of the ballgame.
The Bruins grabbed the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh, added an insurance run in the eighth and would go on to hand the Illini the 8-6 defeat.
GAME NOTES
» Drake Westcott went 2-for-5 with a run, home run and an RBI.
» Homered in both games of the Big Ten Tournament.
» Second time this season homering in consecutive games.
» Led the Illini at the plate in Omaha, going 5-for-10 (.500) with two runs scored, a double, two home runs and two RBI.
» Posted an overall slash of .500/.500/1.200 for a 1.700 OPS.
» Finishes his Illini career with 43 home runs, second-most all-time in program history.
» Coltin Quagliano went 2-for-3 with a run, two RBI and a walk.
» Fifth game this season driving in multiple runs.
» Vytas Valincius went 1-for-4 with two RBI.
» 13th multi-RBI performance of the year.
» Every Fighting Illini starter reached base safely in the loss.
» Illinois left 10 runners stranded on base in the loss.
» Illinois went 3-for-10 (.300) with runners in scoring position.
» Illinois pitchers faced 41 UCLA hitters in the game, allowing 11 ground balls and five fly balls while striking out six.
» The Fighting Illini drew nine walks from UCLA pitching.
» Illinois finishes the season with a 30-24 record.
» Third 30-win season in last four years (2022, 2024, 2025).
» 12th 30-win season under head coach Dan Hartleb.
This story created through content automation technology from Data Skrive.
