Early Friday Scores

Northwestern is up on Indiana, 8-5, in the ninth. Michigan State is beating Purdue, 6-1, also in the last inning. If these scores hold up, here's what we have:

Michigan 20-4
Purdue 17-8
Illinois 14-10
Ohio State 11-12
Northwestern 12-13
Penn State 11-13
Michigan State 11-13
Indiana 9-16
Iowa 8-16
Minnesota 8-16

Our other three affairs are evening games. More to come ......

Update #1: Both NU and MSU did hold on to win, so the standings are accurate as of 8:00pm. Wildcats' OF Nate Roberts had three hits, three RBI and scored twice. Jake Goebbert hit his ninth homerun. Erik Jokisch won his seventh game of the year against just two losses. Matt Havey posted his sixth save. IU's Josh Phegley went yard for the 11th time and Jerrud Sabourin collected three hits.

MSU's Mike Monterey pitched a complete game in the Spartans win. Chris Roberts had a three hit, three RBI game.

Iowa is beating Penn State, 4-2, in the fifth. Illinois is spanking Ohio State, 7-1, in the sixth. Michigan is up early on Minnesota, 1-0, in the fourth. Surprisingly, Michigan All-America candidate Zach Putnam is neither pitching or at DH. Chris Fetter gets the Friday night start. He's got five K's through four and Nate Recknagel has homered again.

Update #2: Iowa and PSU are tied at 5-5 in the eighth. Illinois is still up on OSU, 7-2, in the seventh. Michigan has increased their lead to 3-0 over Minnesota. They are in the eighth. Recknagel's homer tied him for the all-time single season mark in school history (19). Fetter is still on the mound. He's fanned eight, maybe nine. I can't recall. Lots of Gophers caught looking either way. If the Wolverines hold on, doesn't the magic number become four?

(Thanks to BTH regular Chuck for informing me that Putnam didn't travel to Minneapolis due to illness.)

Update #3: OSU and Illinois have been suspended in the seventh. They'll play 2.2 games tomorrow. Iowa and PSU are in extra frames. Minnesota has plated two in the bottom of the ninth, but Michigan maintains a 4-2 lead. Fetter fanned ten before leaving after 8.1 innings of work.

Update #4: PSU's Rick Marlin singles in the winning run as the Nittany Lions beat the Hawkeyes, 6-5, in 10 innings. Paul Hawkins is your winner. Michigan held off a ninth inning comeback attempt by Minnesota and won, 4-2. Fetter got the win. I'm presuming Michael Powers will get a save.

This brings us back to the standings:
Michigan 21-4
Purdue 17-8
Illinois 14-10
Northwestern 12-13
Penn State 12-13
Ohio State 11-12
Michigan State 11-13
Indiana 9-16
Iowa 8-17
Minnesota 8-17

What a race for those last two conference tournament spots. If you can, get out to the ballpark this weekend.