Big Ten Baseball Weekly Review - 2012 Week 1

Illinois

1-2

Notre Dame 13, Illinois 12

Louisville 4, Illinois 3

Illinois 9, St John's 4

It's not good when you open the season hitting six batters and walking six more, but that's what happened to the Illini vs Notre Dame. Even with that, the game was tied 12-12 into the ninth when Notre Dame won it with a homer.

The Illini were down 4-0 in the bottom of the seventh against Louisville, then scored three runs. The rally fell short, however.

Freshman John Kravetz won B1G co-Freshman of the week honors for throwing 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Illini knocked off St. John's.

Indiana

2-1

Connecticut 8, Indiana 0

Indiana 7, Cincinnati 4

Indiana 12, Pittsburgh 7

UConn's Brian Ward pitched 7.1 innings of a shutout in the Hoosier's season opener, while against Cincinnati it was Indiana's turn as Joey DeNato threw six shutout innings and Chris Sujka drove in four runs. Against Pittsburgh, Micah Johnson launched the first pitch of the game over the wall as Indiana never looked back.

Iowa

1-2

Iowa 7, Pittsburgh 5

Notre Dame 5, Iowa 2

West Virginia 4, Iowa 3

Iowa's lone win came against a Pittsburgh team that finished 1-3 on the weekend. Notre Dame rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to take that game. The Hawkeyes started freshman pitcher Sasha Kuebel against the Mountaineers, but couldn't generate enough offense even while outhitting their opponent 8-7.

Michigan

2-1

Pittsburgh 9, Michigan 8

Michigan 2, Seton Hall 1

Michigan 14, West Virginia 3

Bobby Brosnahan allowed four hits and a run in seven innings in the Wolverines nice win over Seton Hall. Michigan held the Mountaineers to just five hits while racking up 13 of their own in a 14-3 win on Sunday.

Michigan State

1-2

Michigan State 11, St John's 4

South Florida 2, Michigan State 1

Louisville 7, Michigan State 6

Nice win over St. John's, and while the Spartans ended up 1-2, they played the toughest draw of any Big Ten team, playing South Florida (3-0 this weekend), Louisville (2-1), and St John's (3-1).

Minnesota

1-2

Minnesota 7, Louisville 1 (8 innings, rain)

St John's 6, Minnesota 1

South Florida 4, Minnesota 3

Minnesota's first game of the season ended on a filed protest - read it all here. Against St John's, pitcher Sean Hagen held the Gophers to one hit and scoreless over six innings.

If the protested game wasn't enough, Minnesota was rallying against South Florida, with a double and a single in the eighth when the game was called due to NCAA travel constraints, so the game reverted back to seven innings. What a weird weekend for the Gophers.

Nebraska

0-3

Gonzaga 7, Nebraska 4

Gonzaga 10, Nebraska 8

Gonzaga 5, Nebraska 4

Nebraska lead going into the last two innings of all three games then choked them away with insufficient pitching and timely mistakes. The Huskers have to find pitchers if they're going to contend for a B1G title. Wow, went out on a limb there, didn't I?

You might be a Husker apologist if you point out that Nebraska played tougher competition than everyone else this weekend. For one, I'm not sure that's entirely true. For two, getting swept still sucks no matter who you're playing.

Northwestern

1-2

West Virginia 7, Northwestern 3

Northwestern 12, Pittsburgh 11 (10 innings)

Seton Hall 6, Northwestern 3

The Wildcats just couldn't score despite outhitting the Mountaineers 13-9. NU stayed in the game early and finally gave up three runs in the ninth inning,. The win against Pittsburgh came as the Wildcats got a single, advanced on a wild pitch, then singled again for the winning run.

Against Seton Hall, once again the Wildcats couldn't score after getting 10 hits.

Ohio State

2-1

South Florida 5, Ohio State 3

Ohio State 14, Seton Hall 7

Ohio State 9, Connecticut 5

The Buckeyes put up some nice wins behind the performance of one of the BIG's top MLB prospects, Josh Desze, who won Player of the Week honors. The game against Seton Hall featured 14 hits by both teams, who also combined for seven errors (4 OSU, 3 SH).

The Connecticut game was shortened to six innings because of travel constraints, but still featured 16 hits and 14 total runs. 28 runs over three games for Ohio State. Hmmmmm.

Penn State

1-2

Seton Hall 6, Penn State 3

West Virginia 4, Penn State 1

Penn State 5, Cincinnati 3

The Nitts managed only three hits in their opener against Seton Hall, and five errors didn't help matters. Against West Virginia, Penn State scored just one run off seven hits (three doubles) and the pitching staff combined for 15 strikeouts.

PSU finally picked up a win n Sunday after playing an error-free game, and getting five runs off eleven hits.

Purdue

3-0

Purdue 9, Connecticut 4

Purdue 6, Cincinnati 0

Purdue 15, Notre Dame 8

Purdue went undefeated against what have might have been the easiest draw, missing St John's, Seton Hall, Louisville and South Florida.

They shredded Notre Dame for nine runs in the sixth inning of that outing, and overall put up 30 runs in three games. Not bad.