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For the second straight week, Indiana is the lone Big Ten team in the major college baseball rankings. Not only that, the Hoosiers are once again on the climb.
IU is No. 21 in the updated Baseball America and D1Baseball.com Top 25 listings released Monday, a jump of two spots in the former and three spots in the latter. The Hoosiers’ rise was fueled by three wins in the four-game Rutgers pod this past weekend, during which they took both matchups with the Scarlet Knights and split with Nebraska.
Indiana, which is a half-game ahead of the Cornhuskers for first place in the Big Ten, has now won 12 of its past 15 games. The Hoosiers will head to Ann Arbor this weekend for three games against third-pace Michigan, which sits only a game behind IU in the league standings.
Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State are slotted at Nos. 1-3 in both sets of rankings.
Speaking of the schedule
Indiana coach Jeff Mercer has really missed midweek games this spring. But thanks to a mid-April rainout, the Hoosiers will get to play a weekday contest after all.
IU announced Monday that will host Illinois on Tuesday, May 18 as a makeup for the April 11 contest that was postponed due to inclement weather in Bloomington. First pitch at Bart Kaufman Field is set for 3 p.m. Eastern.
With the Illinois game back on the docket, IU (23-10) now has 11 games remaining in the regular season. Of those 11, the makeup game will be the only one against a team currently outside the top six in the conference standings. Beginning on May 21, IU will host a pod with Nebraska and Ohio State, then travel to Maryland for a three-game set with the Terrapins to close the regular season schedule.