Friday Recap

Illinois 4 Michigan 3
Iowa 6 Indiana 0
Michigan State 2 Ohio State 0
Penn State 13 Minnesota 5

Tim Day (MSU) and Luke O'Loughlin (Iowa) were the pitching stars Friday. Day shutout the Buckeyes and O'Loughlin shutdown a potent Hoosier lineup. Day, a redshirt junior, hurled a complete game allowing eight hits. Hawkeyes' righthander O'Loughlin pitched eight scoreless innings walking only two. IU managed just five hits in those eight frames. Iowa is tied for third in conference play at 6-3.

Illinois rallied behind an eighth inning bases loaded single from Chris Robinson to beat Michigan in front of the Illini's biggest crowd since 1998. The Illini (8-1) are now alone in first place as Penn State (6-3) pounded Minnesota (7-2) ace Matt Loberg. The Nittany Lions banged out twenty hits and inched closer to the top of the Big Ten themselves.

I continued to be surprised. I never would have imagined OSU getting blanked on a Friday night at home versus MSU. Nor did I envision Iowa keeping pace with Indiana's bats. Penn State's victory only avoids the surprising tag because I cannot figure out Minnesota this year. Illinois' triumph was expected here, as the Illini are starting to look like the class of the Big Ten, but Michigan's continuing slide is far beyond baffling.