Happy Valley Hardball with a sabermetrics twist

The offensive onslaught in Champaign continued as, like Friday, it was the Illnini’s turn to light up the scoreboard. Illini scored two in the first, then broke it open with eight runs in the fourth to take an 11-0 lead.

The good news for the weekend is the Nits did what they had to, earned a 2-2 split in Champaign. Couple that with Northwestern’s split with Ohio State and you wind up with the three teams sitting in exactly the same spot as they did entering the weekend. PSU is in fifth, tied with Northwestern, a half game behind Ohio State, and a game behind Illinois.

With three weekends to go, the top six, Michigan, Purdue, Ohio State, Illiniois, PSU, and NW, look to be separating themselves from the non-contenders (only six qualify for the Big Ten Tournament). The good news for PSU is that their three remaining series with are all with non-contenders MSU, Iowa, and Minnesota. That should help them jockey for a better seeding in the Big Ten Tournament as each of the teams were are battling with for the third seed face a couple of difficult foes.

Here’s the matchups the others are facing.

Ohio State: Michigan, Illinois, Iowa
Illinois: Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue
Northwestern: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan

In a side note, Michigan split with Indiana this weekend and Purdue is now only a game behind the Wolverines in the standings.