Michigan Stays Perfect And The Rest Of Sunday

The University of Michigan swept Ohio State Sunday and remained undefeated in conference play. Rich Maloney's Wolverines posted 6-3 and 13-3 wins over the Buckeyes and are now 8-0 in Big Ten action. The first game saw Mike Wilson improve to 5-0 by going six innings and giving up one unearned run on two hits and five walks. Michael Powers faced four batters to post the save.

Nate Recknagel was the offensive star of the first contest driving run three runs on two hits. Adam Abraham and Kevin Cislo both had two hits a piece in the opener. The finale saw another Michigan run explosion. Brad Roblin had three hits, score four times, drive in two runs and steal a base. Doug Pickens had three RBI. Zach Putnam and Abraham each had two hits and two RBI.

Chris Fetter (4-1) worked seven innings allowing four hits, no walks and striking out three Buckeyes. The righthander allowed three runs in total, none of which were earned. Fetter, Ben Jenzen and Sam Yashinsky held OSU to five hits over nine innings. 2006 Big Ten Freshman of the Year J.B. Shuck had three of them.

Purdue took two of three from Indiana this afternoon. The Hoosiers took the first game, 11-3. IU firstbaseman Michael Nilles had a triple, a homer and drove in four runs to lead the attack. Andrew Means also went yard for IU. Joe Vicini picked up the win. Jeff Mojzik had two hits, two RBI and stole a base for Purdue.

The Boilermakers got plenty of revenge in the next two games. Purdue won by scores of 13-0 and 11-7. Ricky Heines (6-2) went all seven innings giving up three hits, five walks and no runs. Centerfielder Alex Jaffee was the star with the bat going 4 for 5 with three RBI and scoring three times. One of Jaffee's four hits was his first homerun of the season. 3B Dan Black was 3 for 4.

Jaffee had a strong finale as he went 3 for 4 with three runs scored, three RBI and went yard for the second time. Mojzik tripled and drove in two in the third game of the day. Josh Lindblom (3-4) grabbed the win in relief. IU's Jon Fixler also hit his first homer of the year and drove in four runs in the loss.

Northwestern beat Illinois, 6-5. Freshman Cole Livermore pitched a ten inning complete game. That's right. Livermore threw 120 pitches over ten innings to post his second win of the year. The first year Wildcats pitcher allowed nine hits, two walks and only two earned runs.

Antonio Mule had three hits and drove in two for NU. Tommy Finn was 3 for 3 and scored twice. Illinois' Lars Davis, who entered the weekend leading the conference in batting average, went 4 for 5 and stole a base. Illini DH Brandon Webb had two hits and drove in three runs. OF Ryan Snowden saw his 25 game hitting streak come to an end.

Michigan State and Penn State split their Sunday twinbill. MSU took game one, 4-1. Jon Kibler worked a seven inning complete game. Kibler gave up three hits and two walks en route to the victory. Steve Gerstenberger had three hits, two runs and two RBI. Brandon Doherty also had a three hit game for the Spartans. 3B Mike Deese drove in the only PSU tally.

Game two saw the Nittany Lions win, 6-5. The Spartans scored a run in each of the first five innings only to see Penn State plate four in their half of the seventh to win it. PSU's Scott Gaffney had three hits, including a homer, scored three times and had two RBI. Cory Wine also had a three hit game. Michael Lorentson grabbed the win, Drew O'Neil got the save. Kyle Day, Justin Potes and Eli Boike each had two hits for Michigan State.

According to the official Big Ten site, Minnesota has swept the doubleheader with Iowa. 3-2 was the score of the first game, 9-6 was the total in the nightcap. Unfortunately, I cannot find a single link to a story or to a boxscore. Perhaps, tomorrow.

The standings look like this: Michigan is in first at 8-0. In second is Minnesota at 5-1. Michigan State and Illinois are next at 6-4. Purdue is at 5-5, Penn State is 4-5. Ohio State is seventh at 4-6. Eighth belongs to Indiana at 4-7. Iowa is 3-7 while Northwestern is at 3-9.

Some more games have to be played Monday as the schedules were pushed back due to the weather issues.