The Illinois baseball team continued its streak of winning or splitting every series with the Michigan Wolverines since 1991 this weekend, as the Illini split its four game series with the Wolverines in its final home series of the season.

The Illini took advantage of two great performances on the mound by its pitchers in the first three games of the series to take an early series lead, before dropping the finale to the Wolverines on Sunday.

“We played hard throughout the weekend,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “Even with the split, we are still in great position and in better position than the teams that are chasing us. We still aren’t that far out of first place and we still have some baseball left to play.”

Senior pitcher Matt Whitmore took to the mound in Friday night’s series opener at Illinois Field for the last time in his career, and turned in what could be the best performance of his career.

Whitmore was lights out for the Illini, throwing his second career complete game; his only other complete game also came against Michigan. He finished the night with 112 pitches, 71 for strikes, in nine innings and allowed six hits and struck out a career-high eight batters in his final start at Illinois Field.

Trailing 1-0 in the sixth inning Illinois fought back, scoring three times in the inning with RBI singles by sophomores Lars Davis and Ryan Hastings and freshman Kyle Hudson to put the Illini ahead 3-1.

That would be more than enough run support for Whitmore. Whitmore, who started the season as the team’s closer, would sit down the Wolverines last 10 batters and would allow only two batters to reach past second base the entire night.

“Matt’s performance was probably the best performance out of any pitcher this year,” Hartleb said. “He was dominant and there were very few times he was even in a jam. He got stronger as the game went on, and once we got a lead, he went right at guys and was very composed on the mound.”

Not to be out-done the next day, freshman pitcher Ben Reeser would deliver his own complete game performance on the mound in game one of Saturday’s double-header.

Reeser allowed just five hits in seven innings and made just one mistake, a high-and-tight fastball that was deposited over the left field fence for a solo home run by Wolverine senior Mike Schmidt.

Unfortunately for Reeser, his best start to date would be ruined by Michigan senior pitcher Paul Hammond, who matched Reeser’s complete game performance and shut-out the Illini to give Michigan a 1-0 win.

“I went out there and made some good pitches,” Reeser said. “But, a lot of it was our defense and keeping guys off base. Shawn Roof did an awesome job, he was making plays left and right. Their pitcher was just one pitch better than me.”

The Illini would come back in the second game of the double-header on Saturday and regain the lead in the series. Illinois scored six runs in the fifth inning that was highlighted by Davis’ one out, two-run double that gave Illinois a 6-3 lead at the time.

Illinois would add another run later in the inning and would go on to beat the Wolverines 7-4 and earn freshman pitcher Tanner Roark his third win of the season.

“Our guys just stayed after it the whole time,” Hartleb said. “They expected to win and then all of a sudden we finally got our big inning and our pitching went back out with the lead and shut them down.”

Davis would launch his fourth home run of the season for the Illini on Sunday, but the Wolverines would counter with three home runs of their own, including a grand slam in the fifth inning, to beat the Illini 9-6 and remain in first place in the Big Ten.

“We had a good weekend and kept ourselves in the race,” junior shortstop Shawn Roof said. “As long as we can keep from losing a series and avoid taking a step back, we’ll be fine in the end. Now we have to get ready for our next two weekends.”