CHAMPAIGN — It won’t take long to figure out what kind of team Illinois baseball coach Dan Hartleb is working with this season.
Like two days.
Illinois opens this week in Winston-Salem, N.C., at the Wake Forest Tournament.
The Illini play Akron the first two games on Friday. The first game of the doubleheader at David F. Couch Ballpark is set for a 9 a.m. first pitch.
The Zips are coming off a rough season, going 21-34 in 2023.
Then, comes the doozy. At 11 a.m. Saturday, the Illini tussle with No. 1 Wake Forest. On its home field. Why not?
The Illini close the event at 9 a.m. on Sunday against Fordham. The Rams were 19-36 in 2023.
If Illinois comes home from Wake with a 3-1 record, it deserves a pat on the back. If it 4-0, it deserves a spot in the next national baseball poll.
Hartleb, the school’s all-time wins leader, is looking for a bounce-back year after a 25-27 season in 2023. It was just his second losing campaign in 18 as Illinois head coach.
Coaching baseball in the North is a challenge. While teams in the South and West can work outside most of the year, it is a rarity in the winter for a school in the traditional Big Ten.
So Hartleb celebrated the unseasonably warm weather in late January and early February.
The team scrimmaged outside and the pitchers were able to throw live for a four-day stretch.
“It’s the most we’ve ever been out,” Hartleb said during a recent appearance on WDWS’ “SportsTalk.”
That there is turf at Illinois Field helps.
“It’s been really, really nice to see the ball in the air and not be stuck inside,” Hartleb continued.
It should help the team when it arrives in Winston-Salem, where the forecast for Friday is temperatures in the upper 50s, the upper 40s on Saturday and the lower 50s on Sunday.
“I always remember as a player, you’re inside, you’re inside, then your first day outside, whether it is a game or practice, you feel like you are throwing as hard as you can and the ball’s not going anywhere,” Hartleb said. “It’s just different.”
Good works
Hartleb’s been pleased with the willingness of the players to do what is asked, on and off the field.
All but a handful of the 37 players on the roster posted a 3.0 or higher grade-point average in the fall. The team GPA was at 3.4. That makes Hartleb smile.
“Now, we need to have that same performance on the field,” Hartleb said.
Plenty of new faces (15) on the team, a combination of recruits and players from the transfer portal. Yes, college baseball has that, too.
During practice, Hartleb learned more about his team.
“You walk away from practice every day concerned,” Hartleb said. “That’s because if your pitchers do really well, you think you can’t hit. If your hitters are knocking it out of the ballpark, you think you can’t pitch.
“Our pitching coach (Mark Allen) or our hitting coach (Adam Christ), one of them is always happy. And I’m always mad.”
Hartleb’s goal for this season is to get back to what the team did to win in the past.
“We need to put the ball in play on a regular basis,” Hartleb said. “We need to hit head-high line drives. We need to throw quality strikes and not worry about certain things in terms of velocity and spin rate. We just need to go back to basics.”
Head in the game
Hartleb turns 58 on Thursday. He looks 10 years younger than that. So no reason to engrave the gold watch just yet.
“I don’t know what my timeline is,” he said. “I still enjoy things. I’ve been fortunate to be healthy. Things still upset me, which I think is good. I still have a passion for the players.”
There are some issues not related to balls, strikes and home runs.
“I don’t like where college athletics is right now,” he said. “There are some things that I think we’ll cycle through. We’ve got to figure out some rules and parameters.”
Hartleb is bothered by what the transfer portal has meant to the players’ education.
He is not a fan of what name, image and likeness has become.
“To go out and basically recruit, which is what’s happening with NIL money, and giving money to someone who has done nothing to help you,” Hartleb said, “it’s turning into basically an employment situation.
“College is a volatile time for young people and we’re not teaching them the real world. When they leave college, I don’t think they’re prepared for life, and that’s what we are supposed to be doing.”
Hartleb would like to see an increase in scholarship money. The team is limited to 11.7 scholarships for 37 players.
Keep it classy
In more than three decades in the dugout, Hartleb has been tossed out of a game five times. Twice as an assistant and three times as the boss.
“I really try not to say much to the umpires,” Hartleb said. “I think your team feeds off you. When you’re constantly complaining and whining as a coach, I think your players start to do the same thing and then they’re not concentrating on that task at hand.”
Hartleb appreciates umpires that admit when they are wrong.
They are human.
Just like coaches.
