5/25/2018 baseball Edit

Illinois Eliminates IU From Big Ten Tournament 5-4 On Walkoff RBI Double

Stu Jackson • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

Stu Jackson covers Indiana University basketball, football and recruiting for TheHoosier.com. He also hosts Heard on The Hoosier, the site's official podcast.

Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Click here to get your 30-day free trial!

Roughly 30 hours before, a walk-off of its own kept Indiana alive in the Big Ten tournament. This time, the Hoosiers were on the opposite end of those heroics.

Ben Troike's one-out RBI double to center in the bottom of the ninth lifted fourth-seeded Illinois to a 5-4 win over Indiana late Friday night in a conference tournament elimination game at T.D. Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.

With the loss, IU (38-17) is eliminated from the Big Ten tournament while Illinois (33-19) advances to face second-seeded Purdue on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

"Tough game, disappointing game," IU head coach Chris Lemonis said. "Felt lilke we had a lot of opportunities early in the game to expand it and make it ours and we don't. You leave it around for a good team, and their big hitter got a swing off, and it make the difference in the ballgame."

Illinois' Jack Yalowitz singled to second, then was put in position as the winning run at second by a sacrifice bunt from Zac Taylor. Troike hit the ball to center, where IU's Logan Kaletha attempted to make a diving catch but the ball glanced off his glove, allowing Yalowitz to score the winning run.

Indiana built an early 3-1 lead with a sac-fly RBI from Wyatt Cross in the top of the second, an RBI double from Kaletha in the bottom of the second and a solo home run by Logan Sowers in the top of the third. That advantage lasted until the bottom of the fifth when Big Ten Player of the Year Brent Spillane hit a towering 3-run home run to left center to give the Fighting Illini a 4-3 lead.

Kaletha tied it up at 4-4 with a solo home run to right in the top of the seventh, but a single from Luke Miller and a hit by pitch drawn by Ryan Fineman was all Indiana could muster across its final two innings before Troike's walk-off.

Left-hander Tim Herrin struck out four but allowed four earned runs off four hits for Indiana in 4 1/3 innings of a start. Illinois chased him out of the contest in the bottom of the fifth with the Spillane home run, and lefty Andrew Saalfrank took his place on the mound for the next 3 2/3 innings before Matt Lloyd came on in the bottom of the ninth to try to get the Hoosiers into extras. Lloyd (4-2) was given the loss.

Meanwhile, Illinois right-hander starter Ty Weber lasted just 2 1/3 innings after allowing three earned runs off five hits with just one strikeout. Righty Ryan Thompson stabilized things from there, striking out three with one earned run off three hits over the next 4 2/3 innings. Righty Quinten Sefcik allowed a single but induced two groundouts in the top of the eighth before being replaced by right-hander Joey Gerber, who struck out Indiana's Cole Barr to end the inning. Gerber (1-1) was credited with the win.

Ironically, a walk-off with the winning run coming from second was also the same way Indiana stayed alive in its elimination game Thursday afternoon. IU found itself on the receiving end of the same scenario late Friday night and now awaits its NCAA tournament fate with the selection show scheduled for Monday at noon ET.

"We came here to win this thing, and that didn't happen," Sowers said. "We didn't play well enough to win it, and we're going to have to prepare this week to get ready to win a regional."