Around the Big Ten (Baseball): March 15
We’re so close to conference play in the Big Ten, and a lot of teams are turning up the heat. With rivalries on the verge of being reignited, what has the conference been up to recently?
The Iowa Hawkeyes are continuing their strong season with an 11-3 record, but their recent series against No. 22 Texas Tech didn’t go as they wanted to. Texas Tech’s offense exploded in the middle innings of game one. The Red Raiders scored 17 runs on 15 hits en route to a 17-6 win.
Texas Tech continued the trend in game two of the series, scoring in the middle innings again. Iowa put itself back in the game, but Texas Tech ran away with it again in the eighth inning, ultimately winning 8-3.
Iowa’s bats woke up in game three, scoring 10 runs. A late push by the Red Raiders was held off and the Hawkeyes salvaged the series with a 10-9 win.
The Penn State Nittany Lions had a tough matchup against No. 18 North Carolina where they had trouble silencing NC’s bats, dropping the game 15-5. Next. Penn State had a four-game series against Brown and saw almost every possible result.
They walked off game one with a 7-6 win, and in their first game of the doubleheader, Jay Harry hit a walk-off home run in the 12th inning. Unfortunately for them, the baseball burnout caught up to them in the next game where the comeback just came up short.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers have had plenty of success recently, sweeping both their series against Northern Colorado and Illinois State. The bats have been hot for the Huskers, scoring 10+ runs in three of four games during that stretch.
Nebraska is 8-2 in its last 10 games, and a little hiccup against Omaha shouldn’t halt the momentum.
The Indiana Hoosiers are another team that has been hot recently, until getting met by Kentucky who took it to the Hoosiers, beating them 12-2. Before they hit the bump in the road, they were winners of five straight games.
Illinois had an interesting series against Coastal Carolina, to say the least. In game one, the Fighting Illini ended up losing 16-8, but returned the favor in game two, winning 13-3. The rubber match was set, but unfortunately got canceled.
Ohio State had some dates with Cal State Bakersfield, scoring 45 runs across three games and sweeping the series. They also played Marshall, having one game canceled, and winning the other 5-1.
In Maryland’s recent matchup against Maine, the Terrapins decided to score 25 runs in game one of the series, and won 5-4 and 9-1 in the games following.
The Michigan State Spartans played some games against Western Carolina, winning both. They also played Kansas, winning once and having the other game canceled.
Purdue had a tough challenge against the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels after having almost a perfect series against Akron. They came close to beating the Rebels in game two of the series, but fell in extra innings.
Rutgers must be feeling pretty good about how its series went against Georgia Southern, winning all three games and bringing some nice offense to each. The defense was strong in game three with a 7-0 win.
After six straight losses, the Michigan Wolverines are trying their best to keep the boat from sinking. Winners of three of the last four games they’ve played, Michigan will try its best to find its footing.
In early March, Minnesota won two straight games, but its record is still in the gutter at 2-15.
Northwestern still has yet to find a win, at 0-12.
Anthony Desher is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acd5698@psu.edu.
