Examining The Series
The Indiana Hoosiers baseball program needed to sweep the Northwestern Wildcats to have their best chance at Big Ten Tournament qualification. Instead, they lost two of three and continue to sit on the outside looking in with a bleak chance at qualifying. To read more on the Northwestern series, check out Campbell Manahan’s wonderful recap here.
Now, the Hoosiers still have a chance to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, but the odds are stacked against them. If they needed any extra juice, however, they are traveling to West Lafayette to take on the Boilermakers in a huge rivalry weekend slate. Let’s look at where both teams stand in the rankings as of this writing:
Indiana: The Hoosiers have fallen to 119th in the country by RPI rankings and 116th in the country by ELO rankings (a more analytical ranking system). They are 4-6 in their last 10 games, 14th in the Big Ten with a conference record of 7-17, and have faced the 72nd toughest schedule in the country.
Purdue: The Boilermakers are having a much better season than the Hoosiers. They rank 49th in the country by RPI rankings and 53rd in the country by ELO. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games, 6th in the Big Ten with a conference record of 15-9, and have faced the 97th toughest schedule in the country. Purdue will be battling to boost their resume for NCAA Tournament qualification, so they have everything to play for in this series and then some.
Indiana Stats and Figures
14th: This, as we mentioned, is where Indiana sits in the Big Ten standings as of this writing. However, it is also where the Hoosiers land when it comes to team-wide ERA rankings in the Big Ten. Indiana has had some bright spots this season on the mound, but still comes in with a team ERA of 6.52, which is simply not good enough.
3: The Hoosiers have three of the best hitters in the entire Big Ten. Hogan Denny (6th), Jake Hanley (19th), and Caleb Koskie (23rd) all rank within the top 25 when it comes to individual OPS leaders across the Big Ten Conference. Truly, the Hoosiers have star power on their hands. Now, let’s get them all playing postseason baseball as soon as possible.
Prediction and Next Series
My cold streak continues, but we power on! For this series, I am predicting a 2-1 series loss for the Hoosiers. Purdue is a solid team and they are fighting for NCAA Tournament qualification, which should leave them locked in and ready to go.
After facing Purdue for a weekend series in West Lafayette, the Hoosiers then come back home to match up against Illinois for a weekend series to end the season. Be on the lookout for a preview and recap of that series next week!
Stay locked in with Hoosier Huddle for recaps of IU baseball games and series, along with previews examining each one ahead of time. Go Hoosiers!
All ranking metrics courtesy of warrennolan.com. All other metrics courtesy of baseball-reference.com