The streak lives on long enough to become etched in the record books.

It wasn’t easy, but the Illinois baseball team sealed another Big Ten series victory and pushed its winning streak to a school-record 17 games with a sweep of Penn State over the weekend in University Park, Pennsylvania.

The Illini (36-6-1, 13-1 Big Ten) had 32 hits and scored 20 runs over the three games, while the pitching staff held the Nittany Lions (13-26, 2-12) to six runs, only three of which were earned.

“It’s been a fun run,” said head coach Dan Hartleb. “Our guys have done a good job of playing together as a team. It’s not one guy that’s carrying us, it’s a group of guys that are going out day after day and getting their jobs done.”

The winning streak came the closest it has to its end in Saturday’s 15-inning thriller. The Nittany Lions grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning and didn’t relinquish it until the eighth, when sophomore shortstop Adam Walton delivered a two-run single to put Illinois up 2-1. However, junior closer Tyler Jay gave up a rare run in the ninth, giving the fans in Happy Valley some free baseball.

The game-winning hit came off the bat of senior outfielder Casey Fletcher, who slapped a two-out infield hit up the middle with the bases loaded to drive home a run.

A Penn State passed ball allowed Illinois one more insurance run, and reliever Nick Blackburn shut the door in the bottom of the fifteenth for the thrilling victory.

Starter Drasen Johnson pitched well in seven innings, allowing one earned run and one walk with four strikeouts. The trio of Johnson, Jay and Blackburn struck out 14 batters and walked two.

Hartleb praised his pitching staff and was nearly speechless after Saturday’s nail-biter.

“What a great college baseball game,” Hartleb said. “Nobody deserved to lose that. Just a well-played game.”

Friday night’s game was much less dramatic. Powered by long home runs and eight total RBIs from senior infielders David Kerian and Reid Roper, the Illini scored in each of the first four innings to propel themselves to 10-1 win.

Kerian belted a two-out grand slam to the deepest part of the ballpark to blow open the Illini lead in the third inning, and Roper provided cushion with a two-run shot in the sixth.

Assistant coach Kyle Hudson said he heard Penn State infielders say they’ve never seen balls hit that far out of University Park. Hartleb was impressed, too.

“They hit those balls a long way,” Hartleb said. “Kerian absolutely blasted that ball, it was one of the hardest hit balls I think I’ve ever seen. And then, Reid Roper came up with a big one. Those were monster shots.”

After allowing an unearned run in the first inning on Friday, starting pitcher Kevin Duchene posted zeros the rest of the way to earn his seventh win of the season. The 6-foot-2 junior struck out five in six innings and is now 20-3 in his Illinois career.

Illinois wrapped up the sweep with a 6-3 win Sunday. Junior catcher Jason Goldstein hit his sixth home run of the season to extend his career-long hitting streak to 16 games. Starter John Kravetz scattered nine hits over six innings to earn his fourth win of the year.

With the sweep of Penn State, Illinois has won all eight of this season’s Big Ten series and remain on top of the conference standings with just three more conference series remaining in the regular season.

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