Big Ten Baseball Weekly Review - 2014 Week Seven

Big Ten

Overall

Team

Record

Pct.

Record

Pct.

1. Penn State

2-0

1.000

12-13

.480

2. Indiana

5-1

.833

15-10

.600

3. Illinois

2-1

.667

14-11

.560

4. Iowa

3-3

.500

15-9

.625

Minnesota

3-3

.500

14-9

.609

Michigan State

3-3

.500

12-11

.522

Michigan

3-3

.500

12-15-1

.446

8. Ohio State

2-4

.333

16-10

.615

Nebraska

1-2

.333

15-12

.556

Purdue

1-2

.333

5-18

.217

11. Northwestern

1-4

.200

4-19

.174

Illinois

3-1

Illinois 6, Illinois State 1

Purdue 4, Illinois 3

Illinois 6, Purdue 2

Illinois 8, Purdue 3

Illinois versus Purdue.

Indiana

4-0

Indiana State 12, Indiana 8

Indiana 6, Ohio State 4

Indiana 8, Ohio State 2

Indiana 7, Ohio State 1

Joey DeNato set Indiana's all-time strikeout record in the 6-4 win over the Buckeyes.

Three games in this series - Indiana pounded out 42 hits, and gave up 5 earned runs while scoring 21 runs of their own. BTW, if you're wondering about that Indiana State midweek loss - the Sycamores have a RPI of 26 with a record of 17-7.

Indiana's RPI is 16, highest in the Big Ten.

They are #1 in team pitching, 2.67 ERA, and second in team fielding at .972 percentage.

Iowa

1-3

Bradley 7, Iowa 0

Iowa 3, Michigan 2

Michigan 4, Iowa 2

Michigan 6, Iowa 5

Iowa pitcher Calvin Mathews earned B1G Pitcher of the Week honors for his first career complete game in the series opener against Michigan, giving up 6 hits and 2 earned runs. He continues to lead the conference in strikeouts by a fairly wide margin.

3 runs in the bottom of the 8th won the second for Michigan. In the third, Iowa rallied from a 5-0 deficit to tie the game in the 8th only to give up the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

That's a pretty decent series for both teams, actually.

Michigan

3-1

Michigan 12, Western Michigan 4

Iowa 3, Michigan 2

Michigan 4, Iowa 2

Michigan 6, Iowa 5

Read above.

Michigan State

2-1

Minnesota 4, Michigan State 2

Michigan State 15, Minnesota 0

Michigan State 5, Minnesota 0

SPARTY SMASH!!!!!

Game two of the series was apparently so bad that neither Minnesota's nor Michigan State's site posted a box score. Articles allude to Minnesota hitting five batters, giving up 16 walks and 13 hits - all in that one game.

Minnesota

1-2

Minnesota 4, Michigan State 2

Michigan State 15, Minnesota 0

Michigan State 5, Minnesota 0

Minnesota won their home opener at Seibert on Saturday, then dressed middle school kids as Gophers as the real team left for Southern California beaches where the babes are hot and stuff like that.

Or maybe they were confused about what their home field looks like. Everybody has a bad day and John Anderson is a pretty good coach.

Still, outscored 24-2 in a series. Ouch.

Nebraska

2-3

Nebraska 7, Wichita State 3

Kansas State 12, Nebraska 6

UNLV 5, Nebraska 2

UNLV 5, Nebraska 4

Nebraska 5, UNLV 3

I felt bad about Nebraska losing their series against UNLV until I saw what the rest of the Big Ten did. Nebraska, though, still schizophrenic. They beat the Shockers at Wichita, then they coughed up a hairball against the Wildcats, committing a season high errors.

UNLV pitching shut down the Husker batters for the most part and the Rebels offense did enough to win the series. It wasn't horrifying for Nebraska, but disappointing.

The Huskers rank first in conference in team batting (.311), 8th in team pitching (4.29 ERA) and third in team fielding

Northwestern

1-3

Eastern Michigan 9, Northwestern 8

Penn State 7, Northwestern 3

Penn State 10, Northwestern 6

Third game cancelled

Northwestern still has a baseball team! They played Penn State and lost!

Ohio State

1-3

Ohio State 4, Marshall 0

Indiana 6, Ohio State 4

Indiana 8, Ohio State 2

Indiana 7, Ohio State 1

Well. Suck it, Buckeyes.

Keep in mind that this series sweep happened in Columbus. Thing about this series - Ohio State's pitching wasn't completely overwhelmed - Ryan Riga started game one, going 7.1 innings, giving up 13 hits and 5 earned runs. Greg Greve, game two, 5.2 innings, 9 hits, 6 earned runs. Tanner Tully game three, 7 innings, 10 hits, 5 earned runs. Those certainly aren't good, but they aren't horrifying.

Problem was - Buckeyes really couldn't get it going against Hoosier pitching. Ohio State has the second-highest RPI in the conference at 47.

This does not bode well for the rest of the Big Ten against Indiana this season.

Penn State

2-0

Penn State 7, Northwestern 3

Penn State 10, Northwestern 6

Third game cancelled

Undefeated week for the Nittany Lions!

Purdue

2-2

Purdue, 7 IUPU-Fort Wayne 1

Purdue 4, Illinois 3

Illinois 6, Purdue 2

Illinois 8, Purdue 3

Purdue's team ERA continues to drop, so they have that going for them, and they're still not quite in Northwestern territory, so they have that going for them, too.

Their lot should actually improve quite a bit now that we've hit the conference season.