Big Ten Baseball Blog: Preview of this Weekend's Big Ten Matchups

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Preview of this Weekend's Big Ten Matchups

As promised, here is a list of this weekend's Big Ten matchups.

-Penn St. (5-10) travels to East Lansing to take on Michigan St. (8-7). The Spartans will come into this 3 game series confidently as they made a clean sweep of the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City last weekend. The Spartans began the Big Ten season a little rough, but now things seem to be clicking and they are looking to solidify a spot and make a run in the Big Ten tournament. The Nittany Lions, on the other hand, are looking to rebound after dropping three games at home against the Fighting Illini of Illinois. Granted Illinois is a tough opponent, it never feels good to drop 3 games at home, especially against a conference opponent. Although the Spartans are hitting a mere .277 as a team, there pitching has been phenomenal as of late, currently sitting at 4th in the Big Ten with a 5.01 ERA. Penn St. is hitting a bit better at .300, but their pitching is a little weaker with a team ERA of 5.73. On paper, this looks like a pretty even matchup of Big Ten teams, but I see this one boiling down to how Penn St. responds to a tough past weekend. If they come ready to play and hungry for some victories, they could easily take the series against the red-hot Spartans.

-Illinois (11-4) goes on the road to face Northwestern (3-10) in a three game series. The Fighting Illini are coming off of an impressive three-game road sweep of Penn St., which put them in a first place tie with Ohio St. Northwestern is coming off of a weekend which saw them go 1-2 vs. the Buckeyes in Colombus, OH. The Fighting Illini currently are hitting .317, which ranks third among Big Ten teams. They also have had tremendous pitching to date, posting a 2nd best conference ERA of 4.84. The Wildcats come into this weekend's series as the league's worst hitting team, at .265. Their pitching is not much better with an ERA of 5.82. Unless the Wildcats can figure out a way to slow down the Blue and Orange's speedy and powerful lineup, I see this one going to the Illini easily.

-Indiana (10-4) travels to West Lafayette, IN to take on the Boilermakers of Purdue (5-9). The Hoosiers are coming off of a 2-1 weekend against the always tough Wolverines of Michigan. Purdue is looking to rebound after dropping 6 straight conference games to Ohio St. and Minnesota. The Hoosiers are 2nd in the Big Ten in hitting at .325, and sixth in pitching with an ERA of 5.68. Conversely, Purdue is fifth in hitting at .312, and ninth in pitching with an ERA of 5.93. With the recent success of Hoosiers starting pitcher Jake Arnett, and Indiana's talented arsenal of hitters facing a sub-par Purdue pitching staff, it seems hard to believe that the Boilermakers will fare any better than they have in the past two weekends, although I've been known to be wrong. Sometimes losing 6 straight conference games brings out the best in a team, right? We will see.

-The so far "under achieving) Michigan Wolverines (6-9) travel to Colombus, OH to face the Buckeyes of Ohio St. (11-4). The Wolverines are coming off of a 1-2 weekend against Indiana, while the Buckeyes are coming off of a 2-1 weekend at home against Northwestern. Michigan has been quite a surprise this season thus far. Even though they lost a lot of talented players due to graduation and the MLB draft, a team coached by Rich Maloney has and will continue to be picked to finish near the top of the Big Ten each year. The Buckeyes, on the other hand, are not much of a surprise; they are a top threat for the Big Ten crown as predicted. The Buckeyes come into this weekend hitting .330, which is the best team batting average in the Big Ten. They also have a strong pitching staff, which has posted an ERA of 5.45 this year. The Wolverines are hitting a mere .290 on the season. On the bright side, Michigan's pitching staff has been stellar as usual, compiling the Big Ten's third best ERA at 4.86. This series has huge implications of what is to come in the end of the Big Ten season. Ohio St. looks to be a lock into the Big Ten tournament, but more interestingly, Michigan has their work cut out for them if they want to keep their post-season dreams alive. For Michigan, it's crunch time. In my opinion, they need to win at least 2 out of 3 against the Buckeyes this weekend in order to stay afloat in the Big Ten. Knowing Michigan head coach Rich Maloney, the Wolverines will come into this weekend ready to play knowing their urgency, and will win the series this weekend.

-Iowa (3-11) travels to Minneapolis to take on the Golden Gophers of Minnesota (10-4). The Hawkeyes are coming off of a tough 3 game skid against Michigan St. at home. Minnesota comes into this weekend confidently after sweeping the Boilermakers in all three games at the Metrodome. The Hawkeyes are hitting .291 on the year, which is obviously below average, but not terrible. The problem lies in their pitching, which is last in the Big Ten with an ERA of 6.07. Conversely of this, the Gophers pitching staff continues to impress and sits atop of the Big Ten with an ERA of 4.42, led by their dominant duo of senior starters Chauncy Handran and Tom Buske. Offensively, the Gophers are fourth in the Big Ten, hitting .313 on the season. On paper, this one looks a bit one-sided, but let's not be fooled. The Hawkeyes hate losing, especially to the Gophers. This being said, I still think Minnesota will manage to take the series as their powerful lineup and consistent pitching will be too much for the Hawkeyes to swallow.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Big Ten Baseball Blog

Hello everyone and thanks for checking out my Big Ten Baseball Blog! This website is a great resource for anyone and everyone who is interested in not only Big Ten baseball, but baseball in general. Obviously, the main topics of discussion will be Big Ten baseball, but there will also be discussion of other levels of baseball as well. I will try to faithfully update the blog with scores, statistics, standings, and discussions as much as possible.

If you are unfamiliar with Big Ten baseball, or the Big Ten conference in general, here is a quick overview:

The Big Ten Conference was established in 1895, and originally included seven midwestern universities (University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin.). In 1899, Indiana University and Iowa University joined the Big Ten while in 1912, Ohio State joined. In 1946, Chicago withdrew from the Big Ten and later in 1949 Michigan State University was added. For a period of 40 years, the Big Ten remained with its 10 members until 1990 when the Big Ten agreed to add Pennsylvania State University. Since this addition, the Big Ten has become the 11-team elite athletics conference it is today. In recap, today's Big Ten conference includes Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan St., Iowa, Penn St., Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Ohio St., and Wisconsin.

The Big Ten athletics conference competes in 12 men's sports and 13 women's sports, and has become one of the strongest collegiate athletics conferences in the nation. Among these is baseball, this blog's focus.

Big Ten baseball has a long and rich tradition which sadly has gone "under the radar" due to the lack of popularity of not only baseball in the midwest, but college baseball in general. It is my goal to gain more attention to this great conference and sport which is always filled with extremely gifted student athletes and exciting competition.

Currently, 10 of the 11 teams in the Big Ten conference compete in men's baseball. Wisconsin is the only team which does not participate, cutting their program in the late 1980's. These 10 teams play a full 50-60 game schedule each spring, and ultimately strive to become not only Big Ten champions, but NCAA champions. Each season, teams play a handful of non-conference games against various opponents across the nation, as well as 24 games against conference opponents (this determines who wins the Big Ten regular season championship). Once the 24 conference games have completed, the top 6 teams in the conference recieve spots in the Big Ten tournament, which has been held at the regular season champion's home field in the past, but this year will be held at a neutral site in Columbus, OH (Huntington Park). The winner of this tournament recieves an automatic bid into the NCAA baseball tournament which ultimately determines the national champion.

Each year, Big Ten teams are getting more talented and are creating a more exciting situtation for fans and followers. The Big Ten has produced some very quality major league baseball players, and will continue to do so.

I hope that this blog will serve as a great resource for you to follow, learn, and enjoy the great sport of baseball, and more specifically, in the great Big Ten Conference.