CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The No. 25 Illinois baseball team finished a three-game sweep of Purdue with a 6-4 win Sunday at Illinois Field. The Illini officially clinched a berth in the eight-team Big Ten Tournament, which starts May 22 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
"I thought we did a really good job," said head coach Dan Hartleb. "I thought our guys did a good job going out and finding a way to win."
Illinois (34-16, 13-8 Big Ten) won its fifth straight Big Ten series and moved to 12-3 in its last 15 games. The Illini have jumped up to a tie for third place in the Big Ten standings, one game back of second-place Indiana.
It was a grind of a weekend for Illinois, which won in 12 innings Friday, waited out a four-hour rain delay Saturday and celebrated 14 seniors on Senior Day Sunday. The seniors celebrated their graduation weekend with Illinois' seventh weekend sweep of the season.
"We came off final exams. That's a tough week," said Hartleb. "Guys grind through exams and then grind through the series."
Jeff Korte, Branden Comia, Michael Massey and Kellen Sarver all had two hits to pace the Illinois offense. Korte drove in the final go-ahead run on a triple in the sixth, then scored on one of Michael Michalak's two sacrifice flies.
Purdue (19-31, 7-13 Big Ten) tied a world record by not striking out in the game, but had just three hits after the third inning. The Boilermakers had a 3-2 lead in the fourth and tied it 4-4 in the sixth before Illinois pulled ahead and finished them off.
Both teams used five pitchers, ending with Illinois closer Garrett Acton picking up his 17th save. Acton is tied with UT Arlington's Andrew Gross for the national lead and one save away from tying the Big Ten record held by Ohio State's Jake Hale in 2009 (18).
Illinois finishes the regular season Thursday-Saturday at Michigan State. The Illini plan to leave Monday, May 20 for Omaha, ahead of the May 21 practice day and May 22 Big Ten Tournament opener.
Highlights
Notes
• Illinois clinched a Big Ten Tournament berth.
• Illinois is No. 21 in the RPI and owns the sixth-best winning percentage in the nation against top 50 RPI teams.
• Illinois is ranked No. 25 by D1Baseball.com.
• Illinois is 12-3 in its last 15 games.
• Illinois is 12-3 in its last 15 Big Ten games. After starting conference play 1-5, Illinois is now 13-8.
• Illinois is 18-4 at home.
• Illinois has won five straight Big Ten series (at Minnesota, Penn State, at Nebraska, Indiana, Purdue).
• Illinois has won four of its last five series against Purdue.
• Illinois has won eight straight games against Purdue in Champaign.
• Illinois' bullpen is 19-10 with a .185 batting average against, 3.72 ERA and 213 strikeouts in 191 1/3 innings.
• Opponent are hitting .198 with runners in scoring position against Illinois this season (88-445), including 29-172 (.169) with runners in scoring position at Illinois Field. Purdue was 3-23 with runners in scoring position in the series.
• Illinois is 31-5 when issuing fewer than seven walks. The Illini are 3-11 when walking seven or more (of those 14 games, 11 have been on the road and one has been a neutral site game.)
• Illinois has played error-free in 11 of the last 16 games.
• Illinois is second in the nation in fewest errors per game (0.66), behind only Navy.
• Illinois has a fielding percentage of .986 in Big Ten games (11 errors in 21 games), tied with the Big Ten record of .986 also set by Illinois in 1981.
• Garrett Acton is tied the national lead in saves (17) and has set the Illinois single-season record. Acton is one save away from tying the Big Ten record held by Ohio State's Jake Hale in 2009 (18).
• Grant Van Scoy is third in the Big Ten in batting average (.351). Van Scoy hit .442 (34-77) at home.
• Michael Massey is eighth in the Big Ten in batting average (.328).
• Jack Yalowitz is batting .400 (14-35) in the last 10 games.
• Branden Comia in the series: .462 (6-12), 3B, 3 R, RBI
• Hitting streaks: Yalowitz 6
• Reached base streaks: Massey 18, Yalowitz 6
