Big Ten Baseball Blog: Tuesday's Big Ten Non-Conference Results

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tuesday's Big Ten Non-Conference Results

Here are some results from non-conference action tonight:

Western Michigan 1
Michigan 20

Michigan's Travis Smith gets the win and evens up his season record to 5-5 on the year after giving up just 4 hits in 6 innings of work. The Wolverine's bats exploded tonight, led by 1B Mike Dufek, who finished a perfect 6-6 on the day with 2 HR and 5 RBI. Dufek also pitched the ninth inning for the blue and yellow, recording 3 strikouts. Bursett, Oaks, LaMarr, Urban and McClouth also posted multi-hit games for Michigan.

North Dakota St. 5
Minnesota 6

The Gophers won their 9th game out of their last 10 tonight, beating the Bison of North Dakota St. 6-5 in Minneapolis. Gopher reliever Tim Ryan pitched 1.1 shutout innings in relief to pickup the win and move to 1-1 on the season. Offensively the Gophers were led by CF Eric Decker, who finished the night 3-4 with 1 run and 1 RBI. 2B Derek McCallum continues to swing a hot bat as he delivered his 14th HR of the season in the bottom of the 7th to give the Gophers the lead for good. RF Michael Kvasnicka also finished the game 2-4 with a HR, a run, and an RBI.

Louisville 21
Ohio St. 5

The Buckeye's Andrew Armstrong takes the loss and drops to 2-2 on the year after pitching 3.1 innings in which he gave up 12 runs on 10 hits. Ohio State was led offensively by 2B Cory Kovanda, who finished the night 2-5 with 1 RBI. CF Chris Griffin also collected two hits as a substitute, finishing the night 2-3.

UW-Milwaukee 4
Iowa 11

Iowa's Zach Kenyon moves to 1-3 after giving up just 1 earned run on four hits in 6.2 innings of work. Offensively the Hawkeyes were led by DH Phil Keppler who went 2-4 with 3 RBI. CF Kurt Muller also finished 2-4 with 1 HR, 2 runs, and 2 RBI.

Valparaiso 14
Northwestern 2

Wildcat's starter Matt Diedrich dropped to 0-2 on the year after giving up 8 runs in just 1.1 innings pitched. Northwestern's measly 5 hits came courtesy of Stevens, Lashmet, Snieder, Williams, and Wilson.

I'm still awaiting the score of the Western Illinois vs. Illinois matchup in Champaign tonight. Stay tuned for updates.

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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.