The Rest Of Saturday

I'm finally back at home. I say "finally" because the ride home from Columbus was not pleasant. The rain that forced the cancellation of game two between Michigan and Ohio State became snow on the ride up US-23. For a large portion of our trip, it was nearly a blizzard. April blizzards bring May flowers or something like that. That made the drive a bit longer than we hoped for. (Mrs. BTH came along and went to Equine Affaire while I hung around the ballpark.)

I'm thankful to say that outside of some occasionally difficult driving conditions that everything else went well. Back at BTH World Headquarters, it's time to review what happened around the conference.

Illinois swept their twinbill with Northwestern. Mike Stankiewicz tossed a seven inning, complete game one hitter in the first contest. The Illini prevailed, 1-0. Mike Rohde drove in the lone run and stole two bases. Ryan Myers, NU's starter, pitched all seven innings, but got tagged with the loss. Wildcats' 3B Jake Owens got NU's only hit off of Stankiewicz.

In a run filled nightcap, the Illini emerged with an 8-7 victory. Ryan Snowden had two more hits pushing his hit streak to 25 games, a new school record. The Illini LF also scored two times and drove in two runs. In addition, Snowden stole his seventh base of 2007 and sold hot dogs in between innings. Ben Reeser won the game in relief. Jake Toohey got the save. NU's Caleb Fields had three hits and two RBI.

I believe I mentioned this yesterday, but here's the link to Illinois' Friday night win, 6-2. Tanner Roark fanned nine.

Penn State dropped Michigan State, 3-1. Seth Whitehill (3-4) and three others combined to hold the Spartans to seven hits. Drew O'Neil came in to close out the game and earned his fourth save. PSU catcher Joe Blackburn had three hits and drove in a run. 3B Mike Deese and OF Rick Marlin each had two hits and a RBI. MSU catcher Kyle Day had two hits and had the Spartans' RBI.

Purdue's doubleheader with Indiana was suspended due to our fabulous weather and, if I read the IU press release properly, the two teams will attempt to play two and half games on Sunday.
Minnesota beat Iowa, 9-8. Tijl Vanerwege's fourth hit of the game was a walk-off game winning single in the bottom of the ninth. Mike Mee had pair of hits and drove in three. Bill Johnson pitched the ninth to earn the win. Hawkeye SS Jason White collected two RBI as did 3B Kevin Hoef.

The third game between Michigan and Ohio State will be played tomorrow as part of a doubleheader. The first game will be seven games, the second nine.