BLOOMINGTON - After recording just one out in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, freshman Travis Smith trudged off the mound toward the Michigan dugout. Behind him the bulbs of the crimson scoreboard shined: Indiana 4, Guest 1.

Fortunately for the Wolverines, junior Mike Powers coolly took the mound to replace Smith and didn't surrender another run.

On the back of Powers, who allowed just two hits and fanned five batters in 5.2 innings, the Wolverines routed the Hoosiers, 11-4.

"The difference was Mike Powers," Michigan coach Rich Maloney said. "It gave us a chance to fight back."

Led by senior Nate Recknagel's 4-for-4, three RBI performance, Michigan scored in all seven innings. The highlight of Recknagel's game came when he sent his 17th homer of the season off the scoreboard in the third inning, giving him the Big Ten lead in home runs.

The Wolverines held a three-game lead in the Big Ten entering the series. But with Purdue's sweep at Minnesota and Michigan's split against last place Indiana, the Wolverines hold just a one-game advantage.

Although the team was disappointed with its performance and inconsistency this weekend, Michigan (17-3 Big Ten, 30-10 Overall) is still pleased to be on top of the Big Ten.

"If you said at the beginning of the year that you'd be 17-3," Maloney said with a shrug. "I mean everyone else wants to be 17-3."

The Wolverines' confidence dwindled for the second day in a row Sunday. Like the day before, the scoreboard read Indiana 4, Guest 1 after just .1 innings. And like Powers-for-Smith, redshirt junior Ben Jenzen replaced junior Mike Wilson. But unlike Saturday, Michigan couldn't overcome the deficit, falling 11-4 to the Hoosiers.

Wilson was an All-Big Ten selection last season with a 3.52 ERA and 7-1 record. But he has struggled this season, building up an 8.80 ERA and a 2-4 record.

In conference play, Wilson has pitched just 8.2 innings in five games and allowed 13 runs.

"Wilson's struggling," Maloney said after the Illinois series two weekends ago. "It is what it is. If we knew what to figure out, we'd do it. We're trying everything."

The Michigan offense struggled to find its rhythm Sunday, and Hoosier pitcher Tyler Tufts jammed batter after batter as the Wolverines hit ground ball after ground ball.

But in the top of the first inning, Michigan had Tufts on the ropes.

With one run already in, the bases loaded and one out, the Wolverines were primed to score. But with a fielder's choice to get an out at home and a ground out to first by junior Alan Oaks, the Hoosiers (6-14, 18-24) escaped the inning.

"They dodged that bullet and had momentum going into the second half of that inning," Maloney said. "Typically when guys don't get the big inning when they have the chance to do it, the other team responds."

The loss was the Wolverines' second of the weekend. They ended their 12-game winning streak with a 2-1 loss in Saturday's first game.

"It's unfortunate," junior Zach Putnam said. "But what we take from this is that in the two losses this weekend, we got outplayed. Their pitching and defense was outstanding. That's what won them the ballgames."