Watson's Effort Helps Illinois Sweep Penn State

CHAMPAIGN,Ill. -- Cyrillo Watson threw seven strong innings Sunday and the Illinois baseball team beat Penn State 4-3 at Illinois Field. The Illini finished a three-game sweep to get to .500 in the Big Ten.

"We did a good job," said head coach Dan Hartleb. "We're winning close games again. Finding ways to be more productive. I thought Penn State played extremely well. Our guys did a good job of battling."

Illinois (25-13, 6-6 Big Ten) won all three games of the series by one run. The Illini have won five of their last six Big Ten games after a slow start to conference play. 

Watson was dominant on the mound in his most productive start of the year. He tied a career-high with seven innings pitched, while only one run on five hits and striking out five. 

Penn State (17-18, 1-13 Big Ten) scored in the first inning, partly due to a misread fly ball, but Illinois secured a 4-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning. The Illini did it with a three-run fourth, including a leadoff homer from Zac Taylor, an RBI single from Grant Van Scoy and a squeeze bunt RBI from Jeff Korte.  

The Nittany Lions pulled within one run on a solo homer from Shea Sbranti in the ninth inning before Garrett Acton shut the door. Acton earned his 13th save, one away from tying the Illinois single-season record shared by Tyler Jay and Joey Gerber.

Penn State's last 12 Big Ten losses have all been by one or two runs.  

Illinois is on the road next week with stops at Bradley (Tuesday) and Nebraska (Friday-Sunday).

Highlights

Notes

• Illinois has won 14 of its last 15 games against Penn State.
• Illinois is 24-5 when allowing six or fewer runs.
• Illinois is 24-6 when scoring four or more runs.
• Illinois is 12-3 at home.
• Illinois is 22-6 when leading or tied after four innings.
• Illinois is 8-3 in one-run games.
• Illinois has made only six errors in 12 Big Ten games.
• Garrett Acton leads the Big Ten in saves (13).
• Illinois' bullpen has a .178 batting average against, 3.36 ERA and 162 strikeouts in 142 innings pitched this season.
• Opponents are hitting .197 with runners in scoring position against Illinois this season (70/355).
• Michael Massey hit .417 in the series (5-12).
• Illinois' pitchers had a .182 batting average against in the series.
• Hitting streaks: Massey 5, Troike 4, Van Scoy 4
• Reached base streaks: Van Scoy 21, McDonald 10, Taylor 10, Troike 10, Yalowitz 9, Massey 6, Sarver 6
• Grant Van Scoy is on a career-long 21-game reached base streak.
• Cam McDonald is on a career-long 10-game reached base streak.