Big Ten Baseball Blog: Day 3 Results

Friday, May 22, 2009

Day 3 Results - Games 2 & 3

After Minnesota's 12-3 victory over Purdue, they moved on to face #4 Illinois in the third round of the consolation bracket. Minnesota took care of business easily once again, pounding the Illini 13-3. Minnesota starter Seth Rosin improved to 7-1 on the year after giving up 4 runs on 6 hits in 8 innings of work. Illini starter Ben Reeser recieved the loss after giving up 3 runs (1 earned) on 2 hits in just 1 inning of work. Offensively, the Gophers' bats exploded for 12 hits, 3 of them longballs courtesy of RF Michael Kvasnicka and 1B Nick O'Shea. Kvasnicka finished 3-5 with 1 HR, 3 runs, and 3 RBI. O'Shea finished 2-4 with 2 HR, 2 runs, and 2 RBI. DH Matt Nohelty also collected 2 hits, and finished 2-4 with 3 runs. The Fighting Illini were held to just 6 hits, 2 of which came from DH Willie Argo, who finished 2-4 with 1 run, 1 HR, and 1 RBI. SS Brandon Wikoff also added two hits, and finished 2-4 with a run and an RBI. With the win, Minnesota moves on to the consolation championship game, and will face #1 Ohio State at 3:05 pm ET tomorrow (Saturday). The winner will face #3 Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament Championship at 7:05 pm ET. If Indiana loses the game at 7:05 pm ET, another game will be played on Sunday at 12:05 pm ET to determine the Big Ten Tournament champion.

The third and final game of the day featured #1 Ohio State and #3 Indiana. Indiana pounded their third straight opponent, cleaning up Ohio State 13-3 tonight. Indiana starter Blake Monar picked up his fifth win on the season after giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits and striking out 4 in 6.2 innings pitched. Ohio State's Dean Wolosianski recieved just his second loss of the season after giving up 8 runs on 12 hits in 4 innings of work. Offensively the Hoosiers were led by 2B Tyler Rogers who finished 3-5 with a run and 4 RBI. LF Kipp Schutz also collected 2 hits, 3 runs, and 2 RBI and finished 2-5 in the game. Sabourin, Phegley, and Dunning each also added two hits of their own for the red and white. The Buckeyes were held to just 6 hits, 2 coming from 2B Cory Kovanda, who finished 2-5. Hurley, Burkhart, and Streng added one hit a piece for the Buckeyes as well, but it was not even close to enough to put away the Hoosiers tonight. With the win, Indiana moves to the championship game and will face the winner of #1 Ohio State vs. #2 Minnesota at 7:05 pm ET tomorrow. If Indiana does lose the game at 7:05 pm ET tomorrow, they will play the same team again on Sunday at 12:05 pm ET to determine the Big Ten tournament champion. With the loss, Ohio State drops to the consolation bracket and will face #2 Minnesota at 3:05 pm ET tomorrow. The winner of this game will advance to play the Hoosiers in the championship game.

In summary, day 3 saw the following results:

#2 Minnesota 12
#6 Purdue 3

#2 Minnesota 13
#4 Illinois 3

#1 Ohio State 3
#3 Indiana 13

Tomorrow's action will be as follows:

#2 Minnesota
vs. 3:05 pm ET
#1 Ohio State

#3 Indiana
vs. 7:05 pm ET
Winner of Minnesota/Ohio State

Another exciting day of the tournament in the books, just 2 (possibly) 3 games left to go to determine the champion. Illinois' loss today was a tough one which had many NCAA tournament implications for them. Coming into today, Illinois was rated at #63 for estimated RPI rankings according to Boyd's World, which puts them right on the bubble of earning an NCAA tournament berth. A win against Minnesota today would have helped case tremendously, but the loss today makes the Illini's case a longshot. It seems as though Indiana's only shot to make the NCAA tournament is a Big Ten tournament championship, so you can expect them to put everything on the line to get the automatic bid and a tournament championship. Minnesota and Ohio State are both sitting very well, having been very successful in not only conference play, but also with tough non-conference schedules. NCAA selection day is this coming Monday, so stay tuned to hear what Big Ten teams make the cut.

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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.