I am including a shot of the entire standings this week. Look at some of these streaks. Michigan with 15 in a row, the second-longest win streak nationally. Penn State as their typical losing selves.
Look at this, though:
Prior to their 15-game win streak, the Wolverines were 4-11 on the season with a .219 team batting average and a 4.66 team ERA. Since a win against Bowling Green on March 16, Michigan has hit for a .306 team average with a .433 slugging percentage and a 2.00 team ERA.
That’s what you call getting your crap together.
Standings
Rankings
- D1Baseball - Indiana #10
- NCBWA - Indiana #12
- Baseball America - Indiana #16
- USA Today Coaches Poll - Indiana #11
Baseball Schedule
Once again, I am cutting and pasting from team notes, mostly. Sometimes I wrote my own stuff, but I think you’ll know when that is compared to the official stuff.
Iowa at Nebraska
Ugh. This is shaping up to be a terrible year for Darin Erstad’s squad. They might not make (okay, they are not going to) the Big Ten tournament unless something drastically turns around here.
The teams will play a doubleheader Friday - changed because of weather concerns. The Sunday game was supposed to be on ESPNU, but that won’t be happening - probably because of concerns about crappy weather.
The Hawkeyes are 8-2 over their last 10 games and 12-4 over their past 16 games. Iowa has four straight series victories this season and the Hawkeyes have won six straight Big Ten series dating back to last season.
The Huskers are hitting .263 in the Big Ten with two players hitting over .300. First baseman Scott Schreiber has a .416 average with 11 home runs, 10 doubles, 36 runs, and 30 RBIs. Schreiber is second in the Big Ten in batting average and home runs.
The Huskers have a 5.30 ERA, which ranks 11th in the Big Ten. Nebraska has given up 326 hits over 270 innings and is allowing opponents to hit .301.
Maryland at Michigan
The Wolverines rank second in the conference with a 3.29 team ERA and lead the Big Ten with a conference-low .224 opposing batting average. Michigan is also tied for second with 52 stolen bases.
After losing 15 players at the end of the 2017 season, including a program-record 11 in the Major League Baseball Draft, the Maize and Blue added 14 players to its roster in the offseason. The roster additions included 12 freshmen and two junior college transfers that hail from seven different states, and the Wolverine recruiting class was ranked No. 10 by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, marking the highest ranking for a Big Ten recruiting class.
Minnesota at Purdue
Here’s a weird one. Minnesota played a “home series” against Penn State AT Purdue last weekend. Now they head back to Purdue again to take on the Boilermakers. Minnesota swept Penn State, outscoring them 32-10. Minnesota has won 12 straight against Penn State.
Minnesota ranks second in the Big Ten and 20th nationally with a .300 team batting average this season. The Gophers have drawn the most walks in the conference, 161, good for no. 31 in the nation. The team’s 322 hits rank 22nd nationally and first in the conference.
Rutgers at Illinois
This is an interesting series. The Scarlet Knights have won six consecutive series. Rutgers is fourth in team batting at .279, Illinois is sixth at .271, although you wonder where they’d be without Bren Spillane, the only Big Ten player who made the midseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award.
This: Illinois’ Bren Spillane leads the nation in slugging (1.040), OPS (1.582) and total bases (104) and ranks second in batting average (.455) and third in home runs (14).
Ohio State at Penn State
Ohio State lost their series to Iowa last weekend. I found that surprising, but that’s mostly because I hate Iowa. The Buckeyes can score a lot. I thought they’d outscore Iowa. I was wrong.
These are Ohio State’s game notes about this weekend. Notice that they say almost NOTHING about Penn State.
I have to hand it to the guy who does the Penn State notes. Here they are. This is called “looking for any positive thing I can find.”
Northwestern at Indiana
Basically... you have a ranked team at home facing a rather bad team.
The Hoosiers are 14-2 in their last 16 games and have not lost more than two games in a row so far this season. Indiana has posted two seven-game win streaks through the first 29 games in addition to a four-game win streak.
The IU pitching staff is first in the Big Ten in ERA (2.47, 3rd nationally), walks per nine innings (3.02, 19th) and WHIP (1.25, 25th), second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.53, 39th), and shutouts (4, T-16th) and is third in hits allowed per nine innings (8.36).
Offensively, Indiana is second in the Big Ten in slugging percentage (.450, 25th nationally), home runs per game (1.0, 32nd), doubles per game (2.0, 39th) and hit by pitch (41), is third in batting average (.289, 49th), on base percentage (.382) and hits (281), and is fourth in total bases (438).
Valparaiso at Michigan State
Valparaiso comes in at 10-18 with a RPI of 153, so from that measure, a better team than the Spartans. Valpo played Purdue earlier this season in a mid-week game, losing 4-1.
RPIs
Big Ten Baseball RPIs for April 13th
Team | RPI |
---|---|
Team | RPI |
Indiana | 16 |
Illinois | 29 |
Iowa | 34 |
Ohio State | 44 |
Minnesota | 45 |
Michigan | 62 |
Purdue | 72 |
Maryland | 81 |
Nebraska | 101 |
Rutgers | 143 |
Northwestern | 206 |
Michigan State | 212 |
Penn State | 223 |