Big Ten Baseball Blog: NCAA Regionals Preview

Thursday, May 28, 2009

NCAA Regionals Preview

Tomorrow marks the opening day of the 2009 NCAA Baseball Tournament. As you know, three teams from the Big Ten Conference earned spots in the tournament (Ohio State, Minnesota, Indiana). Here is a quick preview of tomorrow's action:

#2 Georgia (37-22)
#3 Ohio St. (40-17)

Ohio State's Alex Wimmers looks to boost the Buckeyes past the Bulldogs tomorrow. Georgia was the #1 nationally ranked team in a few polls earlier in the season and competed very well in a tough college baseball conference, so this looks like a tough matchup for the red and gray of Columbus. Wimmers has been solid all year in the Big Ten, but we will see how he fares against arguably tougher southern hitters. Should Ohio State win, they will play the winner of #1 Florida State and #4 Marist. If they lose, they will play the loser of FSU/Marist.

#1 Louisville (44-15)
#4 Indiana (32-25)

Indiana sends Eric Arnett to the mound tomorrow to face the top ranked Cardinals of Louisville. The Hoosiers have faced Louisville twice already this season, dropping both games 15-1 and 10-8. Although Louisville may have Indiana's number so far this season, I think that Indiana has a strong shot at pulling off the upset tomorrow. The Hoosiers played excellent baseball down the stretch in conference play, and played nearly perfect baseball during the entire Big Ten Tournament. If Indiana's pitching staff continues to dominate and the their starting lineup's bats stay hot, don't be surprised to see the red and white of Bloomington steal a huge win tomorrow.

#2 Minnesota (38-17)
#3 Baylor (29-24)

Minnesota will start fifth-year senior Tom Buske on the mound to take on the Bears of Baylor. Buske has pitched tremendously this season, earning Third-team All-Big Ten honors. The question is whether or not he will be able to fool Baylor's hitters like he has consistently done in the Big Ten this season. I personally feel that Buske matches up well against southern teams because of his arsenal of pitches. A majority of southern teams such as Baylor face hard-throwing fastball pitchers more often than soft-throwing locating pitchers such as Buske. I wouldn't be surprised if Buske's tricky changeup, sneaky slider, and well-located fastball can keep the Bear's hitters at bay. The question that remains is which Gopher team will show up? Will it be the Gopher team from the first and last games of the Big Ten tourney who looked flat, played poor defense, and struggled offensively? Or will it be the team from the middle games of the tournament who pitched well, hit well, and fielded like a typical Minnesota coached team? I guess we will see tomorrow.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's results and analysis of the opening regional games.

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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.