IU Drops Michigan, Purdue Within One Game Of First

The Big Ten race got a bit tighter again on Sunday. Here's the Sunday scoreboard.

Indiana 11 Michigan 4
Tyler Tufts pitches a complete game for IU. Tufts allows seven hits and seven walks, but wins for the third time as IU splits their weekend with #24 Michigan. Jerrud Sabourin goes 4 for 5 and Josh Phegley collects two hits, two RBI and scores three times. Phegley and Michigan's Adam Abraham both knocked out their seventh homers of the season.

Michigan State 11 Iowa 10
The Spartans break a 10-10 tie in the bottom of the ninth to win it. MSU's Eric Roof has two hits and three RBI. Steve Gerstenberger goes yard for the second time this year. Ryan MacFarlane tosses two innings of hitless relief to notch the W. Kyle Riffel's two hits and three RBI pace Iowa.

Purdue 6 Minnesota 4
Nick Overmyer has two hits and two RBI to lead Purdue past the Gophers. Brandon Haveman and Dan Black also had a pair of hits. Kyle Cook (3-1) worked 6.1 innings giving up four hits, three walks and one earned run. Eric Decker led the Gophers' attack with two hits, a run and a RBI. The win pulled the Boilermakers within a game of Michigan for first place.

Northwestern 14 Ohio State 8
Max Mann had three RBI while Mike Kalina and Jake Owens each drove in two for NU. Chris Lashmet had two hits, a RBI and scored four times. Jonahtan Purcell posted his first win of the year. Matt Havey's fourth save was four innings long. Ryan Meade and Tony Kennedy both had three hit games for OSU.

Illinois 17 Penn State 6
Kyle Hudson had three hits, three runs scored and two RBI for the Illini. Daniel Webb had two hits, two runs scored, three walks and three RBI. Freshman Casey McMurray was a perfect 4 for 4 with three runs scored, a walk and a RBI. Brandon Wikoff also drove in three for Illinois. Starter Billy Barrett's five innings of work were enough to get the win. Wes Borden drove in two PSU tallies and Ryan Boonie had two hits, two walks, a run scored and a RBI.

Here are the updated standings.

Michigan 17-3
Purdue 16-4
Illinois 11-9
Ohio State 10-9
Penn State 10-10
Northwestern 10-10
Michigan State 7-12
Minnesota 6-14
Iowa 6-14
Indiana 6-14

I think it's safe to assume that the Wolverines are probably back outside the top twenty-five. The bigger question is how far will their RPI drop with two losses in Bloomington?

The Boilers have now pulled within a game of the first place Wolverines. Let's take a peek at both program's remaining schedules.

Michigan
Ohio State
@ Minnesota
Northwestern

Purdue
@ Indiana
Michigan State
@ Illinois

I would say the schedule favors the Boilermakers, even though they've got two road trips, but you are welcome to disagree. Regardless of my opinion, this has been an odd season and clearly anything could happen over the next three weeks.

The complete schedule for next weekend looks like this: OSU @ Michigan, Purdue @ IU, Minnesota @ Iowa, Northwestern @ Illinois and Michigan State @ Penn State.