With their big sweep over Baylor, Illinois has first place to themselves in the Big Ten with a 10-4 record.
Conference Overall
Team W L T Pct W L T Pct
Illinois............ 0 0 0 .000 10 4 0 .714
Minnesota........... 0 0 0 .000 10 5 0 .667
Ohio State.......... 0 0 0 .000 9 5 0 .643
Indiana............. 0 0 0 .000 8 3 0 .727
Michigan............ 0 0 0 .000 8 7 0 .533
Iowa................ 0 0 0 .000 7 6 0 .538
Michigan State...... 0 0 0 .000 6 7 0 .462
Penn State.......... 0 0 0 .000 5 9 0 .357
Nebraska............ 0 0 0 .000 5 9 0 .357
Northwestern........ 0 0 0 .000 4 5 0 .444
Purdue.............. 0 0 0 .000 4 9 0 .308
Big Ten Awards
Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio State are also doing quite well as well. Not surprisingly, those three teams took home the Big Ten weekly awards.
Player: Kyle Schwarber, So., IND
Pitcher: Tom Windle, Jr., MINN
Freshman: Jacob Bosiokovic, OSU
I won’t even go into my weekly rant about Illinois being ignored for these awards. One, I know our guys would rather win than get another piece for their mantle. And two, the fact that players from other conference teams are doing well is good for Illinois and good for the Big Ten. I generally don’t root against other Big Ten teams during non-conference season (unless it’s Michigan, just kidding). When the Big Ten wins as a whole, the teams in it look better. It’s as simple as that.
Indiana’s Schwarber, in fact, did have a dominating weekend against Florida, going 10 for 14 with a double and a homer. That was enough to put him in the conference lead for batting average with a .471 mark. Indiana as whole is now leading the conference in hitting with a team .303 batting average.
The Parr brothers continue to lead the Big Ten in the rbi category. They both have 16 rbis after the weekend.
On the cusp of the National Polls
Take a look at the NCWBA national rankings and you’ll see a new development. Illinois is starting to get votes. We’re not in the top 30 yet but it seems we’ve gotten the attention of the national college baseball scene.
While Illinois is looking in on the NCBWA polls, Indiana (8-3) has already cracked the Baseball America collegiate polls. They have been ranked #24 after winning two of three this weekend. Indiana is also ranked #30 by Perfect Game.
Finally, Nebraska is showing us how tough their early schedule really was. After losing their first seven games of the season, they’ve won five of their last seven games.. That included a midweek doubleheader sweep against Northern Colorado last Wednesday.