Friday's Finals

It was a mixed bag of results on Friday.

Ohio State thumped Kansas, 16-5. Buckeyes' DH Chris Macke hit a grandslam and drove in six on the day. OSU's Cory Kovanda had four hits, scored three times and had two RBI. Dan Burkhart had three hits (and scored twice with one RBI) as did J.B. Shuck (who scored three times and drove in one). Cory Rupert had a pair of hits, RBI and runs. Jake Hale posted his first victory working five innings.

Penn State got a much needed W as they beat up Lehigh, 18-9. Wes Borden, Scott Kelley and Rob Yodice each had three RBI for the Nittany Lions. In addition to his three runs batted in, Kelley had three hits and scored four times. PSU 1B Cory Wine had three hits including a homer. Wine also scored three times and had two RBI. Seth Whitehill improved to 2-1.

Minnesota beat South Dakota State, 3-1. Gophers CF Matt Nohelty had three hits and stole his ninth base. Jeff DeSmidt, Mike Kvasnicka and Jeff Engel had the Minnesota RBI's. Tom Buske fanned ten in 7.1 innings of work and moved to 2-2 on the season. Buske allowed just five hits, a walk and the lone SDSU run. Scott Matyas struck out all three batters he faced (on 14 pitches) to earn his second save.

Illinois and Central Connecticut State split a twinbill of seven inning affairs. CCSU took the opener, 8-7. Sean Miller-Jones and Tommy Meade each had three hits for CCSU. Kyle Hudson had a pair of hits and three RBI to lead the Illini. Dominic Altobelli also went yard for Illinois. Taylor Kosakowski posted the win.

The Illini rebounded to take the nightcap (daycap?), 5-4. Kyle Hudson had three more hits, scored twice, drove in one and stole a base. Brandon Wikoff had a pair of hits and two RBI. CCSU's Sean Miller-Jones had three more hits in the finale, as well. The win went to Scott Shaw (1-1) and the save went to Wes Braun (1).

Northern Iowa swept two seven inning games from Northwestern. NIU won game one, 6-0. Nick Kirk (2-3) held NU to just two hits over seven innings. Kirk walked two and whiffed seven. Cory Ege had three RBI for NIU. Jake Owens and Jake Goebbert had the only hits for the Wildcats.

NIU took the final game, 2-1. Guido Fonseca went the full seven innings, yielding five hits, no walks and the single NU tally. Fonseca, who is now 4-0, struck out eight Wildcats. Eric Jokisch (1-1) went six innings for NU giving up two hits and five walks plus the two NIU runs. Aaron Newman paced the Wildcats with a pair of hits.

Both the IUPUI-Ft. Wayne vs. Michigan and Oakland vs. Michigan State games were postponed due to snow. As I arise this morning, I find several new inches of the frozen stuff on the ground. That means it's safe to assume that today's OU vs. MSU game is probably a no-go, but check both programs websites to verify my hunch.