Coach Drew Dickinson congratulates Justin Parr after he hits safely in his 19th game on Saturday
With a 22-10 record, it was bound that the Illinois baseball team would get its due recognition. No one deserves it more than Justin Parr who was honored with the Big Ten Player of the Week award. For the week, Parr went 8 for 17 with six rbis and two homeruns. He also hit for the cycle on Sunday against the Purdue Boilermakers.
Sunday’s four hits extends Parr’s hitting streak to 20 games which is the second longest active streak in the NCAA. In fact, Parr has hit in every game this except two. He is currently hitting .438, tops among all Big Ten hitters.
Justin Parr is five games away from the record of 25 games held by Ryan Snowden in 2007. Funny, I just saw Mr Snowden (right, from 2007)at the ballpark on Sunday.
A lot can change in one weekend. A week ago Illinois was 2-4 in the Big Ten and in seventh place in the conference. Well, after the Illini sweep of Purdue they are still only in sixth place but the lines are being drawn. There’s a big gap now between sixth place Michigan State and Illinois (5-4) and eighth place Northwestern and Purdue (4-8). The Spartans by the way, handed Indiana a sweep for the weekend. Is it possible that we’ll be fighting it out with MSU once again for the last postseason spot?
Illinois is taking on Illinois State University in the “I-74 game” tonight. As of this writing, there’s no score after two innings with Kevin Duchene on the mound.
Go Illini!
Justin kept his streak alive with the team winning 12 – 1 (I believe).
Nice going, Illini! Keep up the momentum this weekend!