Indiana holds off Illinois 4-3 in Big Ten Tournament

By The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Freshman Evan Whiteaker pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings, while striking out a career-high six, and Indiana held off Illinois 4-3 in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. Indiana (41-16), which has at least one win in nine of the last 10 conference tournament games, advance to the winners’ bracket to face No. 3 seed Iowa on Thursday. Seventh-seeded Illinois (25-26) plays No. 6 seed Michigan on Wednesday in the consolation bracket. Whiteaker needed only four pitches to record three outs in the eighth inning before leaving with one out in the ninth. Illinois, trailing 4-1, loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning. A throwing error led to two runs before Brayden Risedorph got Drake Westcott to fly out.