Saturday Scoreboard

Opening Weekend of Big Ten play continued today throughout the rainy Midwest. I was in Columbus and it rained hard enough there to delay the start of game one. I'll provide a more detailed report of the BTH road trip in a separate post, but suffice to say conditions were not ideal in Big Ten country today.

#29 Ohio State 6 Iowa 2 (Game 1 box)
Iowa 8 #29 Ohio State 0 (Game 2 box)
The Buckeyes 15 game winning streak came to an end in the finale of the twinbill. Iowa CF Travis Sweet had three hits, two RBI, two runs scored and stole a base to led the Hawkeyes' offense. SS Jason White added two hits, two RBI, two runs scored and his third homer of the season. Nick Erdman (2-1) went five and two-thirds allowing five hits, two walks and no earned runs. Ohio State catcher Eric Fryer had a pair of hits.

In Game One, OSU plated three in the fourth and three more in the fifth to secure the victory. Buckeye 3B Tony Kennedy had two hits and two rbi. CF Matt Angle had a hit, a run and stole three bases. Josh Berrera improved to 3-0 and Jake Hale posted his fifth save of 2007. Travis Sweet had two hits in the opener for Iowa.

Penn State 3 Minnesota 2 (Game 1 box)
Minnesota 9 Penn State 2 (Game 2 box)
Ryan Stobart picked up his first win for Penn State. Stobart worked six innings and Drew O'Neil came in to pitch in seventh and earn the save. Nittany Lions' 2B Matt Cavagnaro had a pair of hits, scored once, drove in one and stole two bases. 1B Cory Wine also had a two hit game. Gary Perinar went six innings for Minnesota, but took the loss. Gophers' LF Mike Mee had two hits and two RBI. CF Matt Nohelty had two hits and stole his 12th base of the year.

In the nightcap, Mike Mee had three more hits including his first homerun of the campaign. Mee also scored three times and drove in two runs. Dan Lyons also had a three hit game for Minnesota. Marcus Mackenzie improved to 4-0 with the win. Kyle Carr posted his second save of 2007. Joe Blackburn and Rick Marlin each had two hits for PSU in the second contest of the day.

Michigan 7 Northwestern 4 (Game 1 box)
Michigan @ Northwestern (Game 2 weather delay)
Andrew Hess (3-0) went 6.1 innings allowing five hits, two walks and four runs. Ben Jenzen recorded the final two outs and earned his fourth save. C Doug Pickens had three hits, scored twice and stole a base. 1B Nate Recknagel drove in two. NU's Geoff Deitz and Jake Owens each had a hit, run scored and a RBI.

The second game has run into delays. The first was for weather, the second for darkness. According to both programs' websites, the game will be finished tomorrow with the Wolverines leading 11-3.

Michigan State 6 Indiana 2 (Game 1 box)
Michigan State 12 Indiana 6 (Game 2 box)
Jon Kibler (2-2) posted the win in the first game. Kibler tossed the full seven innings yielding eight hits, one walk and one earned run. MSU CF Dennis Jones hit a three run tater and added another RBI giving him four in the opener. Spartans' 2B Steve Gerstenberger also went yard. IU freshman Matt Bashore (3-2) also pitched all seven innings, but took the loss. Hoosiers' SS Keith Haas had a pair of hits and a RBI.

Spartans' freshman LF Chris Roberts had four RBI on two hits in the nightcap. MSU SS Brandon Doherty went 3 for 4, CF Dennis Jones had two hits and two RBI. (Jones had six RBI in the doubleheader.) A.J. Dunn (1-0) got the win pitching three innings of one hit relief. IU's Keith Haas was 3 for 4.

Illinois 9 Purdue 4 (Game 1 box)
Purdue 2 Illinois 1 (Game 2 box)
Shawn Roof went 2 for 4 with three RBI to lead the Illini attack. Lars Davis, Ryan Snowden and Ryan Hastings all collected a pair of hits as well. Scott Shaw pitched seven inning complete game to move his record to 3-1. Ryan White, John Cummins and Nick Overmeyer all had a couple of hits a piece for Purdue.

Finally, a pitchers duel. Purdue starter Ricky Heines was the star of the second game. Heines (4-2) twirled seven innings of four hit, one walk, one run baseball. Illinois' Mike Stankiewicz (1-3) was nearly as good allowing six hits and two walks in his six innings of work, but took the tough loss. Boilermakers 1B Ryne White had another two hit game in the finale.

If I've got this correct, Ohio State is up on Iowa, two games to one. Michigan State holds the same advantage over Indiana. Illinois is also a game up on Purdue. Minnesota leads Penn State, 2-1, and Michigan is up on Northwestern by a 2-0 count with the completion of today's second game on the docket for tomorrow.