OMAHA, Neb. — Illinois entered the Big Ten baseball tournament with the realistic viewpoint of needing at least one win to create some separation from the NCAA tournament bubble.
This week's tournament projections had the Illini as one of the last five teams in the tournament field after a strong finish to the regular season.
Illinois got that first win — and a small, corresponding bump in RPI — with a 7-1 victory against Indiana at TD Ameritrade Park that ended shortly after midnight Thursday and saw Michael Massey hit a three-run home run to go along with quality pitching from Quinn Snarskis, Ryan Thompson and Ryan Kutt.