Cyrillo Watson threw seven strong innings Sunday and the Illinois baseball team beat Penn State 4-3 at Illinois Field. The Illini finished a three-game sweep to get to .500 in the Big Ten.

The Illini have won five of their last six Big Ten games after a slow start to conference play. 

Watson was dominant on the mound in his most productive start of the year. He tied a career-high with seven innings pitched, while only one run on five hits and striking out five. 

Penn State (17-18, 1-13 Big Ten) scored in the first inning, partly due to a misread fly ball, but Illinois secured a 4-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning. The Illini did it with a three-run fourth, including a leadoff homer from Zac Taylor, an RBI single from Grant Van Scoy and a squeeze bunt RBI from Jeff Korte.  

The Nittany Lions pulled within one run on a solo homer from Shea Sbranti in the ninth inning before Garrett Acton shut the door. Acton earned his 13th save, one away from tying the Illinois single-season record shared by Tyler Jay and Joey Gerber.

Illinois is on the road all week with stops at Bradley (Tuesday) and Nebraska (Friday-Sunday).