CARBONDALE, Ill. - In its final midweek game of the year, No. 6 Illinois completed a perfect month and extended its school-record winning streak to 18 games with a 7-5 victory over Southern Illinois. The Illini finished 16-0 in April and notched an unblemished 9-0 mark in midweek tilts. The Orange and Blue tallied their seven runs and 10 of their 11 hits in the first five innings.
Illinois' 18-game winning streak is the longest active in the NCAA and second-longest this season behind Texas A&M (24). The NCAA record winning streak (34) is owned by Texas (1977) and Florida Atlantic (1999).
The Illini continued their best start in program history (37-6-1) and boast the best winning percentage in the NCAA (.852). On his birthday, starter Rob McDonnell improved to 6-1 with six strikeouts over six solid innings.
Every Illini had either a hit or a run, led by Adam Walton, Ryan Nagle, Casey Fletcher and David Kerian with two hits each. Sophomore Matthew James led off the fourth with the only home run of the game.
After Nagle drilled a one-out double in the first, juniorJason Goldstein drove him in with a double down the left field line. Kerian knocked in Goldstein after Fletcher's single put runners on the corners.
After a scoreless second, Kerian plated Reid Roper with a sacrifice fly in the third. UI posted three runs in the fourth, beginning with his fourth bomb of the year. Nagle pushed across senior Will Krug with an RBI single, while Walton later scored in the inning on a wild pitch.
James brought home Kerian on a sacrifice fly in the fifth for Illinois' final run. SIU got on the board in the sixth with a two-out, two-run double. Their final three runs came on RBI groundouts with one in the sixth and two in the seventh. Both runs in the seventh were unearned for sophomore Cody Sedlock due to two Illini errors.
Sedlock notched the first out in the eighth before junior J.D. Nielsen retired the next two Salukis. Nielsen started the ninth with a groundout, and junior Nick Blackburn recorded the final two outs for his third save.
Head coach Dan Hartleb earned career win No. 313, which is one victory shy of George Huff (314) for third on the school's all-time list.
Up Next: No. 6 Illinois will head to Columbus for a Top-25 showdown with No. 25 Ohio State this weekend (May 1-3). The Illini are in first place in the Big Ten at 13-1, while the Buckeyes are in third at 12-3.
