For one of the rare instances this season, Iowa just wasn’t themselves in a midweek contest. The consequence was a 3-2 loss against the Illinois State Redbirds.
It’s just the Hawkeyes’ second midweek defeat, but it’s a costly one given that Illinois State ranks just No. 175 in the Division I college baseball RPI rankings. The loss dropped Iowa nine spots in the RPI to No. 71 nationally.
For an Iowa team that has positioned itself nicely with its performance in Big Ten play, it’s especially disappointing to plummet in the RPI with this Illinois State setback because of its larger ramifications. After the midweek loss to Illinois State, D1Baseball’s latest field of 64 projection has the Hawkeyes on the outside looking in.
One week ago Iowa was the second-to-last team in the field according to D1Baseball’s April 27 projection, so it was clear that Iowa couldn’t afford any slip-ups in the midweek against a team like Illinois State. In its April 27 projection, D1Baseball had Iowa traveling to the Fayetteville Regional as the No. 3 seed alongside top-seeded Arkansas, second-seeded Texas Tech and No. 4 seed Southeast Missouri State.
Now, Iowa has some makeup work to do. The Hawkeyes close the regular season with three more Big Ten series against Purdue, at Michigan State and Indiana over the next three weekends. Iowa also plays one final midweek game against Illinois Chicago.
D1Baseball’s top eight seeds included No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Oregon State, No. 3 Virginia Tech, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Miami, No. 6 Auburn, No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 8 Notre Dame. The only Big Ten teams listed in the field are Maryland and Rutgers. Maryland is the No. 2 seed in the Charlottesville Regional with top-seeded Virginia, while Rutgers is the No. 3 seed in the South Bend Regional with No. 1 seed Notre Dame.
Illinois was also listed as the No. 68 team and in the “First Four Out” section.
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