With the dramatic success of the Big Ten champion 2024 Illinois baseball team, there have been comparisons drawn to the last Illinois team that won a title in 2015. As of this writing, our team is the #3 seed in the Lexington Regional and they are first scheduled to play Indiana State on Friday, May 31 at 6pm.
There are some obvious similarities and but also some stark contrasts between the 2015 season and the 2024 season. I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and recount some of the stories of that incredible season.
Fifty wins
The 2015 Illinois baseball team has a pretty impressive resume. Illinois’ 50-10-1 record broke their record for wins from 1982 that still holds to today. Thanks in part to a 27-game winning streak which lasted from March 30 to May 20, Illinois reached #2 in the national rankings and stayed there for three weeks. Aside from that incredible stretch, they also had a five-game and a six-game win streak.
Pitching, pitching and pitching
In a lot of ways, 2015 was won with the arms. Reliever Tyler Jay saved fourteen games and had a miniscule 1.08 ERA but the starters were so very effective as well. Two weekend starters posted double-digits in wins. Kevin Duchene went 11-2 with a 1.75 ERA. Drasen Johnson followed that up with a 10-3 posting and a 2.01 ERA. Rob McDonnell (7-2, 2.28 ERA) and John Kravetz (5-0, 3.35 ERA).
Joining Jay in the pen were Nick Blackburn, JD Nielsen and future star Cody Sedlock who combined for a 10-1 record.
Overall, Illinois outscored their opponents 389 to 201 which probably says a lot about their hurlers.
The bats of 2015
That’s not to say the offense didn’t contribute in 2015. They sure did. They even led the Big Ten in homeruns. The difference was that they did it with 54 homers compared to this year’s 103. It was certainly a different era than today.
First baseman David Kerian led the charge with a .367 batting average and sixteen homers. Ryan Nagle (.339) and Casey Fletcher (.326) both hit over .300 and contributed heavily to the offense. Second baseman Reid Roper was the only other Illini to hit double-digits in homers with an even 10.
Adam Walton, Pat McInerney and Jason Goldstein all provided good solid bats in the lineup. Speedy Will Krug led the team in steals with 14.
Season trajectory
The 2015 Illini won. A lot.
There were only two times they lost two games in a row. The first time was early on at the Coastal Carolina Tournament. On February 28, they dropped a game to Ball State 2-1. The next day, Kent State took them down 4-3.
The only other time was June 7-8 during the final two games of the Champaign Super Regional against Vanderbilt. That sadly ended the season for the team.
Though the 2015 Illinois baseball team were the Big Ten champions and eventually went on to host a super regional, they did not win the Big Ten Tournament. That honor went to Michigan. Illinois managed to get as far as the semifinal but were eliminated by the eventual tourney winner.
Interesting side stories of 2015
On February 22, 2015, Illinois ended their game at Florida Gulf Coast with a 4-4 tie due to a travel curfew and a late start on a Sunday afternoon.
On May 10th, Illinois defeated Rutgers 28-13.
That’s something our 2024 team could empathize with. Reid Roper set the school record for most runs scored in one game with six. He also drove in six. Pat McInerney and Jason Goldstein both drove in four each.
The box score is quite something.
On Sunday, April 5, 2015, Illinois defeated Northwestern decidedly by the score of 17-2. That day, Coach Dan Hartleb won his 300th Illinois game.
You’ve seen a few photos of the scoreboard already. In fact, it was 2015 when a brand new scoreboard was erected smack dab during the baseball season.
In the early home games, the legacy scoreboard in left field was in use while the new one was being constructed.
By the conference season, the new multimedia LED scoreboard was ready to be used.
Finally, during the Super Regional, Illinois played Wright State and it was quite an intense game. The head coach for the Raiders was ejected and refused to leave the field.
He had to be escorted by the UI police.
Outcome of the 2015 season
At the end of the season, Illinois swept the conference honors.
David Kerian came home with B1G Player of the Year after batting .367 with 16 homeruns and 52 rbis. Tyler Jay earned the B1G Pitcher of the Year Award with a lights-out season. In 30 appearances, Jay saved 14 games with a 1.08 ERA. He struck out 76 batters in 66 2/3 innings while only walking seven. Jay was named First team All-American while Kerian and starting pitcher Kevin Duchene were named Second team.
Adam Walton, Jason Goldstein, Casey Fletcher, Tyler Jay and David Kerian all earned All-Big Ten First team honors. Drasen Johnson came home with All-Big Ten Second award and Reid Roper, John Kravetz, Ryan Nagle and Pat McInerney won All-Big Ten Third team recognition.
And of course, Dan Hartleb brought back the Big Ten Coach of the Year award.
After Illinois the 2015 season was over, conventional wisdom was that Illinois stock was pretty high. That proved to be correct. A record high nine players were chosen in the MLB Draft in 2015.
That included Tyler Jay who went in the first round and sixth overall to the Minnesota Twins.
See some of my photos from the 2015 season
Making comparisons
So am I going to say whether the 2015 or 2024 is better?
That is probably not a fair question considering we are comparing apples to oranges. This is a very different era in college baseball. One has to look at the number of homeruns to see that. I will say that both teams excelled in certain areas.
There is a huge common denominator. I have seen a trait in successful Illinois baseball teams.
Chemistry.
Sometimes, they just click. If you listen to the dugout, you can certainly hear it. The players are up on the railing and chattering. Over the season, they have bonded and developed routines that embellish the skills they have brought to the game.
We saw it in 2015. We saw it in 2019 when the Illini went to the Oxford Regional. And now, we’re seeing it this year.
Let’s go Illinois!