Big Ten Baseball Blog: Day 3 Results - Game 1 (Minnesota vs. Purdue)

Friday, May 22, 2009

Day 3 Results - Game 1 (Minnesota vs. Purdue)

The first game of Day 3 of the Big Ten Baseball Tournament in Columbus, OH featured #2 Minnesota taking on #6 Purdue in the second game of the consolation bracket. The Gophers easily took care of the Boilers by a score of 12-3. Minnesota's senior chucker Tom Buske set the tone for the Gophers, throwing a complete game and allowing just 3 runs on 7 hits, and striking out 4 Purdue hitters along the way. For the Boilermakers, Matt Morgan took the loss after giving up 6 runs on 8 hits in just 4.2 innings pitched. Offensively the Gophers were led by the bats of CF Eric Decker and 2B Derek McCallum. Decker collected 4 hits, and finished the day 4-5 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. McCallum finished 3-5 with 1 HR, 1 2B, 2 runs, and 4 RBI. 1B Nick O'Shea also collected three hits and finished 3-6 with 1 run and 1 RBI. RF Michael Kvasnicka added a monster homerun that hit off of the top of the scoreboard in right-center field to put the Boilers away for good. Purdue was led as usual by CF Brandon Haveman, who finished 3-5 with a run. 1B John Cummins provided 2 of the the 3 Boilermaker runs courtesy of a homerun to left field. Cummins finished 1-4 oin the game. With the win, Minnesota moves on to play #4 Illinois at 3:45 PM et today. The winner of this game will move on to face the loser of #1 Ohio State vs. #3 Indiana. With the loss, Purdue is eliminated from the tournament, and their season is pretty much over, barring a miracle berth in the NCAA tournament.

Stay tuned for results of #2 Minnesota vs. #4 Illinois and #1 Ohio State vs. #3 Indiana, which are scheduled to take place at 3:35 PM et and 7:05 PM et respectively. Also, remember that the games can be seen live on the Big Ten Network.

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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.