Polls, Midweek Recaps And Other Links

This is a mess of links to any number of things Big Ten related. All are baseball themed, of course, but there really isn't any order. I'm hoping everyone can find something they like.

CSTV's weekly Player of the Year rankings are avaiable. While no one from the Big Ten is in the Top 10, thus landing them a color photo, both Minnesota's Mike Mee and Illinois' Lars Davis have garnered votes. I kid you not. Go look. I figure Eric Sorenson slid someone from the Big 10 a vote, but I can't believe he's got two in his top ten. I'd love to know who voted for whom.

Mark Etheridge has issued his weekly guess as to the make-up of the NCAA Tournament field. Both Minnesota and Michigan are in.

The Wolverines are moving up in all the polls after their sweep of Michigan State. Ping! has Michigan at # 17. Collegiate Baseball has them at # 13. The NCBWA has Rich Maloney's troops at # 26. USA Today/Coaches Poll has Michigan at # 22. Baseball America has the Maize and Blue up to # 16.

Minnesota has also made the polls. Finally. Ping! has the Gophers ranked # 29. The NCBWA has John Anderson's side at # 30.

Illinois won it's midweek encounter with Southern Illinois, 6-2. Jason Grodsky of The Daily Illini reports. Ryan Snowden had a four hit, four RBI game.

Dustin Ensinger of The Lantern catches up with Ohio State heading into their weekend battle with Michigan State.

The Daily Northwestern's Chris Gentilviso gives a recap of NU's midweek loss to Northern Illinois.

Paul Cordes of the Minnesota Daily writes about those red hot Gopher bats.

Iowa's 9-3 triumph over Western Illinois is the subject matter for Eric Mandel of The Daily Iowan. Jason White and Travis Sweet were in the middle of Iowa's offense, again. (No surprise there.)

Lars Davis of Illinois is the only member of the Big Ten to be named as one of fifty semi-finalists for USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award. Davis was also named to the Brooks Wallace and Johnny Bench Award lists, as well. All deserving, I might add. The Illini catcher was also the subject of a Spotlight feature at Ping! Baseball. (Yeah, I'm tardy on this one, but it reveals the kind of season Davis is having.)

Courtney Ratkowiak of the Michigan Daily reviews the Wolverines mashing of MSU. Ms. Ratkowiak also writes on Eric Rose's stolen base record.

Northwestern beat Illinois Tech today, 13-7. Antonio Mule went yard twice.

Ping! interviews Spartans Craig Brookes and Steve Gerstenberger. MSU head coach David Grewe gets a Ping! Spotlight feature, as well.

Michigan swept a doubleheader from Western Michigan. Game one was a 4-1 triumph. Game two went Michigan's way, 9-4. Derek Van Buskirk had two hits and two RBI in the first game. Van Buskirk collected two more hits and two more RBI in the nightcap. Adam Abraham got the win and drove in two runs.

Indiana has added a midweek game against Louisville to help make up for all those rain/snow/cold outs.

The University of Illinois did a feature on outfielder Ryan Snowden.