Big Ten Baseball Blog: Big Ten Tournament Day 1 Results

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Big Ten Tournament Day 1 Results

Today the Big Ten Tournament began at Huntington Park in Columbus, OH with #4 Illinois downing # 5 Michigan State 16-5. Illinois starter Phil Haig gave up a grand slam to MSU's Eric Roof in the top of the 3rd inning, but then settled in nicely and pitched a total of 7 innings with just those 4 runs given up from Roof's grand slam. For Michigan State, Nolan Moody started strong giving up 0 runs in the first three innings, but then after a 5 run 4th and a 2 run 5th by the Illini, he was pulled. Moody finished the night giving up 7 runs on 10 hits in 4.1 innings. Michigan State's bullpen did not fare any better than Moody, giving up 9 runs throughout the last 5 innings of the game. Offensively, the Illini exploded for 18 hits and were surprisingly powered by the bottom half of their order. The ninth hitter, 2B Josh Parr, led the time in hitting and finished 4-5 with a 2B and 4 RBI. The eighth hitter, RF Pete Cappetta also collected 4 hits, and finished 4-5 with 4 runs and 3 RBI. The sixth hitter and DH Willie Argo also finished 3-4 with 3 runs and 1 RBI. C Aaron Johnson and LF Casey McMurray also each added two hits of their own for the Fighting Illini. Michigan State was held to just 7 hits, and was led by C Eric Roof, who finished 2-3 with a grandslam, a run, and 4 RBI. 3B A.J. Shindler was 1-3 with 2 runs. With the win, the Fighting Illini will face #1 Ohio State tomorrow at 7:05 ET. The Spartans drop to the consolation bracket, and will face elimination as they take on #6 Purdue tomorrow at 12:05 ET.

The second game of the day saw #3 Indiana easily handle #6 Purdue 9-1. Hoosier starter Eric Arnett pitched 7 shutout innings, striking out 10, walking just 1, and giving only 4 hits. Purdue's Matt Bischoff gave up 5 runs on 7 hits in 4 innings pitched. The Hoosiers collected 15 hits on the day,and were led by LF Kipp Schutz, who finished 3-4 with 2 runs. RF Chris Hervey provided the only HR on the day, and finished 2-4 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. CF Brian Lambert was also 2-4 with 2 RBI, and Rogers, Gonzalez, and Sabourin all added two hits of their own. A pretty balanced distribution of hits throughout the order for the red and white. The Boilermakers were held to just 7 hits and were led by their big man, 3B Dan Black, who finished 2-4 with a 3B. 1B John Cummins provided Purdue's lone RBI, but finished 0-2 on the night. With the win, Indiana will face #2 Minnesota at 3:35 ET tomorrow. With the loss, the Boilermakers drop to the consolation bracket and face elimination when they take on #5 Michigan State at 12:05 ET tomorrow.

As you can see, no big surprises today as the #3 and #4 seeds defeated the #6 and #5 seeds respectively. It will be interesting to see if Ohio State's and Minnesota's pitching can slow down the hot bats of the Fighting Illini and Hoosiers tomorrow. Here is my prediction of how the rest of the tournament will shake out:

Thursday
#2 Minnesota defeats #3 Indiana
#4 Illinois defeats #1 Ohio State
#6 Purdue defeats # 5 Michigan State (Michigan State is eliminated)

Friday
#4 Illinois defeats #2 Minnesota
#3 Indiana defeats #6 Purdue (Purdue is eliminated)
#1 Ohio State defeats #3 Indiana (Indiana is eliminated)

Saturday
#2 Minnesota defeats #1 Ohio State (Ohio State is eliminated)
#2 Minnesota defeats #4 Illinois

Sunday
#4 Illinois defeats #2 Minnesota (Minnesota is elimated)

Big Ten Tournament Champions: Illinois

I challenge everyone to post their predictions and we will see how the tournament actually shakes up and how everyone's predictions turned out. Stay tuned for tomorrow's tournament results and updates.

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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.