Friday, February 20, 2009

The Challenge: Friday Open Thread

The Big East/Big Ten Challenge is underway (weather permitting, of course). Each of the next three days, I'm going to start an open thread where either you or I can comment on the day's action. Let the games begin!

11:17pm Eric Jokisch tosses a complete game and Northwestern prevails, 5-3, over Georgetown. The Big Ten takes Day One.

Illinois is beating Iowa, 7-2. It's the seventh inning.

That's all for tonight, folks. Thanks to everyone for sharing updates and opinions in the comments section. I hope everyone will be back for more on Saturday. I, alas, may be in the snow removal business for part(s) of the day.

10:25pm Ohio State downs Notre Dame, 2-0. Alex Wimmers gets the "W", Drew Rucinski notches the save. Wimmers fanned seven in six innings. He yielded four hits and three walks. Rucinski struck out three in three innings of work. Justin Miller and Cory Rupert drive in the Buckeye tallies. A very strong opener for OSU. The Big Ten will do no worse than a split of today's games.

Iowa is up 2-1 over Illinois. It's the bottom of the fifth inning.

9:46pm As you may have noted in the comments, after a strong start, things have gone south for the Big Ten. Michigan and Purdue posted dramatic come-from-behind wins and Michigan State also held serve in the first game. However, the Big East has taken the last three affairs. St. John's drilled Penn State 15-6. West Virginia put a hurt on Indiana, 14-4. Seton Hall pounded Minnesota, 11-2.

Two games left with Northwestern against Georgetown and Notre Dame versus Ohio State. Illinois and Iowa are also underway.

4:25pm Apparently, the Boilers and Bearcats are battling it out in a good, old fashioned slugfest. (Check out the comments section. BTH readers are on top of all the action.) 10-8, Cincinnati was the last update. Correction, 9:44pm: It's wasn't Satterwhite who went yard twice, it was both Mike Spina and Justin Riddell who homered twice.

Keep checking the comments for updates and posters, keep up the good work. I'll be reporting back in later this evening.

4:15pm West Virginia has plated three in the top of the first and lead Indiana by a 3-0 score. A lineup note, freshmen Cody Webber got the start at 2B for IU. Chris Hervey (RF), Evan Crawford (CF) and Michael Earley (LF) are your Hoosier OFs. Kipp Schutz, anyone?

I can't quite figure out what to make of the Purdue and Cincinnati game. The only score I've been able to track down still has Cincinnati up 5-4, in the fourth. It's been that way for over an hour. Maybe if I turn on the Big Ten Network, they will have the game on ............ oh, never mind.

4:05pm Michigan wins it, 6-5, in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Nick Urban opened the inning by doubling, two outs were recorded, then Kenny Fellows hit a ball back up the middle that the USF infielder couldn't quite handle. Urban scored and Michigan posts a come-from-behind win in the opener.

I'll presume it's a win for Tyler Burgoon who sat the Bulls down in order in the top of the stanza. Other good news for the Maize and Blue, both frosh catchers -- Coley Crank and Jake McLouth -- displayed some power. More on this game a bit later. Time to see if I can track down any other scores.

3:45pm Michigan ties it up at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth. LaMarre drives in two and a failed pick-off attempt yeilds the tying run.

3:30pm USF adds on to its lead, the score is now 5-2 Bulls in the eighth.

3:10pm Apparently, there are technical problems at Jack Russell Stadium where Michigan is playing USF. Neither their radio or the GameTracker can function. USF is doing a live chat from the site. Plenty of Maize and Blue supporters appear to be in the Bulls' chat room. South Florida leads Michigan, 3-2 in the seventh inning.

The GameTracker for the Purdue/Cincinnati contest froze up with the Bearcats up 5-4, in the fourth. Ahh, the joys of following college baseball.

2:00pm Cincinnati posted a three-spot on Purdue in the top of the third. The Bearcats have wrestled back the lead, 5-4. No score to report from the USF - Michigan game. It was supposed to begin an hour ago.

1:50pm
Nick Overmyer singled in a run, Wolgamot drove in two more and Purdue now leads Cincinnati (a pretty good team, by the way), 4-2.

1:30pm
The Jake Boss Era opens at Michigan State with a victory. The Spartans down UConn, 4-2. Nolan Moody looks good in his first start going seven innings while allowing seven hits. Kurt Wunderlich pitches a scoreless eighth and Kurtis Frymier pitches the final frame to earn his first MSU save.

Brandon Eckerle batted leadoff and collected three hits, two RBI and stole two bases. A.J. Shindler and Chris Roberts both had a pair of hits. Eli Boike and Jeff Holm both swiped two bags and Roberts also stole a base. Is it premature to think that Coach Boss might be a tad aggressive on the base paths this year?

Cincinnati has jumped out on Purdue, 2-1 after the first inning. Bearcat cleanup hitter Mike Spina hit a two-run homer off Matt Bischoff. Boilers' 2B Ben Wolgamot scored on a Tyler Spliner sac fly.

12 comments:

formerlyanonymous said...

State looked good, but dammit, I'm ready for Michigan to start already. Its already 130 and nothing doing.

RayG said...

My guess is no one has a wireless card. So no live stats. There is no press box at most of the fields that this being played at. Iowa played at Russell Field last year and a picnic table was our press box.

BaseballBucks33 said...

The Bearcats and Boliermakers are tied at 8, in the 8th inning in Clearwater, Florida. Sounds like the wind has really caused a lot of trouble for both teams.

BaseballBucks33 said...

The Bearcats are up 10-8 now, 8 inning (Cinny) OF Saterwhite has hit 2 HR today and just drove in 2 more on a base hit. Satterwhite has 5 rbi's today.

neo said...

Mich and S Florida all tied up 5-5 in 9th. Michigan scores three in bottom of 8th with Lamarre single, and failed pickoff attempt.

BaseballBucks33 said...

Purdue just beat the Bearcats 13-10 in the bottom of the 9th. Purdue 3rd baseman Dan Black blasted a 3-run walk-off HR to win the game for the Boilermakers off Bearcats closer Jake Geglein.

BaseballBucks33 said...

St. John's 15
PSU 6 Final

West Virginia 14
Indiana 4 Final

Seton Hall 4
Minny 1 Top of 7th

The Buckeyes and Notre Dame just started at 8:15pm and are scoreless in the 2nd inning.

neo said...

unconfirmed. But, NU was leading 2-0 in the 5th, and I just heard NU beat Georgetown, but do not have the final score. Why isn't BTN here????

neo said...

Confirmed. NU wins 5-3 over Georgetown!!

BaseballBucks33 said...

Great win for the Bucks over Notre Dame tonight,awesome pitching by Alex Wimmers and Drew Rucinski also. Good to see great pitching so early in the year. They both are only sophomores

Illinois now up 6-2 in the top of the 7th.

Brian said...

Two reasons BTN is absent. 1) It reflects the conference's interest in baseball. 2) Money. It costs too much to televise these events.

It's cheaper and, to be honest, better for ratings to have talking heads in-studio to discuss basketball.

I tried to watch Big 10 Tonight to see if they were going to provide anything in a timely manner. No such luck.

The in-studio stuff was previewing tomorrow's hoops match-ups and personality features on various athletes.

The crawl was no better. Perhaps, the baseball scores eventually arrived, but I was given a healthy dose of WBB stats. Not scores, stats.

Five or ten minutes was all I could take, so, if baseball finally did make an appearance, I was long gone.

BaseballBucks33 said...

My bad on the Purdue-Cinny game, i guess the final score was 11-10 and Dan Black hit a double to win the game for the Boilermakers. I was listening to the game on my computer and it was not working very well. Also Satterwhite did not hit any HR's either. I guess my day as a reporter is over. Lol! Sorry guys.

Here is the box score from the game

http://purduesports.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/stats/022009aab.html