Justin Parr thought he had a home run during the eighth inning Sunday, but when he realized it wasn’t going over the fence, he had to pick up the pace. Parr knew he was a triple away from the cycle, the first he could remember ever having in his career.

He got to third base easily, a two-run, stand-up triple to emphatically complete one of the game’s most difficult accomplishments. He became the first Illini to hit for the cycle in four years. 

Parr’s getting some recognition for his accomplishments, as he was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the first time in his career.

It comes after going 6-for-13 with five RBIs, five runs scored and an on-base percentage plus slugging of 1.456 as Illinois swept Purdue this past weekend. Add that with his performance in last Tuesday’s game, and Illinois’ standout center fielder has hit 8-for-17 slugged 1.000, scored seven runs, hit two home runs and had six RBIs this past week.

“It’s a well deserved award, he played so well this weekend,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “There’s been a number of times he’s played well and hasn’t been recognized for it so its very nice that he’s being honored this week.”

This past week improves Parr’s average to .438 on the season, which leads the conference and is in the top-10 in the NCAA. He’s the first player in the Big Ten with 60 hits, which is also good for top-10 in the nation. He leads the Illini with 36 RBIs.

Parr was modest, quickly deflecting the attention to the way the entire team is hitting — accounting for 40 runs this past weekend — and shifting focus to Tuesday’s game at Illinois State (18-15, 3-3 Ohio Valley Conference).

“You know you enjoy it for about 10 seconds, and then you just got to lock in again,” Parr said.

The Illini (22-10, 5-4 Big Ten) are 1-1 in midweek games this season, and Hartleb stresses how important not losing any more games will be if Illinois wants to maintain a strong RPI.

Parr will also put his career high 20-game hitting streak on the line Tuesday, which is nearing relevance in Illinois’ baseball history.

Parr’s hitting streak is the second-longest active streak in the country and is now tied for the third-longest in school history. He is five games shy of the all-time Illinois record of 25, set by Ryan Snowden in 2007 and three games behind Tom Sinak’s 23-game hitting streak in 1994-95.

During the first two games against Purdue, Parr didn’t get a hit until his last at-bat and joked that he’s had people texting him asking why he keeps building the suspense. He wasted no time on Sunday, with a hit in the first inning before completing the cycle.

“It’s a cool opportunity, but it’s not something I really hang my hat on,” Parr said.

Jamal can be reached at [email protected] and @jamalcollier.