Big Ten Baseball Blog: NCAA Tournament

Friday, May 29, 2009

NCAA Tournament - Day 1 Results

Rough day for the Big Ten today on Day 1 of the NCAA Tournament:

OHIO STATE 8
Georgia 24

Ohio State sent one of the Big Ten's top pitchers in Alex Wimmers to the mound today, but surprisingly he was shelled by Louisville. Wimmers pitched just 4 innings, gave up 8 runs on 8 hits and walked 7 batters. The Buckeye's bullpen struggled as well, giving up 14 runs throughout the course of the last 5 innings. The Buckeyes collected 10 hits and were led by C Dan Burkhart who finished 3-3 with an RBI. LF Zach Hurley finished 2-4 with 2 runs and an RBI as well, but it was not even close to enough for the Bucks tonight. Ohio State will face the loser of #1 Florida State and #4 Marist tomorrow. Currently, the Seminoles lead 1-0 in the bottom of the 4th inning.

MINNESOTA 0
Baylor 5

Depressing loss for the Gophers tonight. Senior pitcher Tom Buske gave up a 2-run HR in the top of the first inning, but did eventually settle in nicely and left the game in the 7th inning after giving up just one more run. The normally stellar Golden Gopher offense was held to just 5 hits on the night, led by 3B Kyle Geason who collected 2 hits and finished 2-3 on the night. The Gophers will face the 4th seeded Southern Jaguars tomorrow at 1 pm, facing elimination.

INDIANA 2
Louisville 8

Tough one for Hoosiers fans to swallow tonight. The Hoosiers sent dominant starter Eric Arnett to the mound, and he gave up 5 runs (just 1 earned) on 5 hits in 7 innings of work. As you can tell, Arnett wasn't necessarily the issue for the Hoosiers as he only gave up one earned run. The Hoosiers committed 3 errors, and posted just 6 hits offensively, two coming from LF Kipp Schutz, who finished 2-4 on the night. Indiana will now play #3 Vanderbilt tomorrow, facing elimination.

In summary, three Big Ten teams played in today's opening day of the NCAA tournament, and all three did not fare well. Granted they all played tough teams, I don't think anyone expected it to be as rough as it ended up to be. We will see if the Hoosiers, Buckeyes, and Gophers can rebound tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates and results.

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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.