The Illini baseball coaching staff knew that the Illini needed a good showing at the Big Ten Tourney to help their case before the NCAA tournament selection committee.  

They got one....at least at the start.

They rallied from down 4-0 early to crush Michigan State 16-5 on Wednesday on the opening day of the tournament.  Then they led the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes 4-1 going  into the later innings of their game on Thursday night and seemed to be setting themselves up for a semi-final matchup with Indiana.  

Then a couple of mental mistakes and a powerful Ohio State offensive attack caught up with them and in front of a partisan Buckeye crowd at Huntington Park in downtown Columbus.....the Illini were bumped into the losers bracket to face Minnesota.

Ben Reeser...who has been battling a bad back most of the season ...tried to fight his way through a tough Golden Gopher lineup on Friday but got touched up early for a 1st inning home run and the Illini bullpen couldnt  stop any further Minnesota onslaughts. The Illini were bounced out of the tournament too quickly.

The Illini did not finish strong.  and they know that.  They lost 2/3 to Ohio State at home 2 weeks ago...and lost 2/3 in West Lafayette to Purdue with a possible Big Ten Tournament still within reach last weekend . The 1-2 record at the Big Ten Tournament probably wont help their cause either...especially if Indiana goes on to win the tournament title.  The Hoosiers had a poor non-conference record going into league play...but have 3 top-shelf pitchers at their disposal and could be a dangerous team to face in the NCAA's if they make it.

The Illini do have the wins at #1 LSU to their credit and they were within one game of the regular season Big Ten title as they battled with NCAA-bound Ohio State and Minnesota down the stretch. They have a wonderful hitting lineup top to bottom and were a very exciting team to watch.

But it may not be enough. We will find out soon.

One footnote: The Big Ten Network continues its coverage of the Big Ten Baseball  Tournament this weekend from Columbus.  I really enjoyed broadcasting the first two days of the tournament on the network and the crew I worked with were a lot of fun to be around and they did a great job .  I look forward to hopefully another opportunity to do it again in the future.

Now on to the summer!