The Baseball Zealot

Purdue eliminated Illinois from the Big Ten Tournament today defeating them in a hard fought extra inning contest 4-3.

Starter Jimmy Conroy kept the Illini in it for most of the game.

One can hardly fault starting pitcher Jimmy Conroy who pitched a heck of a game. He pitched a 10 inning complete game allowing only 3 earned runs.

Shawn Roof hurrying to his post at the hot corner.

Shawn Roof did his best, too. He went 3-4 with an rbi. For the tournament, Roof was 6 for 7.

A word about Shawn Roof. His bio informs us that he was named “Mr Hustle” by his high school in Paducah, KY. If you watch him during the game, you can see why. When the inning is over, he runs out to his position at third base. Then when his team is up, he runs back to the dugout. He does nothing at half-pace.

Chris Robinson heading to third on a run-scoring triple. Coach Itch Jones is in the foreground.

I enjoyed watching Robbie play thoughout the spring. It seemed he could do everything. He’s a good hitter (.353 with 8 HR), has great instincts behind the plate and a great arm.

And they don’t give out Big Ten Sportman awards for being a jerk.

So that’s it for the Illini in the tournament. With them and Iowa eliminated that leaves #3 Purdue as the only team left seeded in the top half of the bracket.

Didn’t make it to the Illini game yesterday. Elected instead to take my 5-year daughter out on a date. It was a close call but she’s a real sweet talker sometime.

Got back in time to listen to most of it on the radio… if only I could stay awake. It wasn’t that the game was boring, it’s just been a long week. I remember waking up briefly and hearing that the Illini were up 6-2 and falling back in blissful slumber thinking that the good guys had things well in hand.

I had forgotten one of reasons I like the game of baseball so much:

Almost anything can happen and usually does.

And when we’re talking about college baseball, that rule is especially true. Unfortunately, the Illini fell to the Gophers 11-8. The good news is that the Illini have started to score runs which they didn’t against Iowa last weekend.

Next up, it’s now or never. Later this afternoon, they play the winner of the Purdue/Michigan game which is just getting on its way right now.

And I’ll be there

Updated Big Ten Tournament Bracket

Followup:
I forgot to mention that Michigan eliminated Iowa from the tourney by defeating them 8-6 yesterday. Much as I dislike Michigan, I can’t help feel a little relieved. We had a tough time with Iowa last weekend.

One more thing… for those who want to listen or follow the Illinois game via Gamecast, go to the Big Ten Tournament Central web page.

The first two games were played today at Illinois Field.

Ohio State 7 Michigan 3

Minnesota 14 Iowa 7

But now I’m confused.

Look at the updated bracket and see if this makes sense to you. According to the playoff bracket, shouldn’t Illinois be playing Ohio State?

Anyway, Illinois is scheduled to play Minnesota Thursday night at 7:05pm and barring any last minute crises, I should be there rooting them on.

Update: I am confused no longer. If I taken the time to look at the original bracket (below), it explains it clearly. Illinois is playing the lower seeded team.

Well, classes have been over for a couple weeks but if you’re a college baseball fan, things are still abuzz this week here in Champaign-Urbana. Tomorrow, the Big Ten Baseball Tournament begins!

Big Ten Coach of the Year Itch Jones

First things first though. Illinois Coach Itch Jones was named Big Ten Coach of Year. Jones guided the Illini to a 20-12 conference season (30-21-1 overall) and won the Big Ten title.

Congratulations Coach Jones!

Other Awards

Big Ten Player of the Year Drew Davidson

UI Centerfielder Drew Davidson won Big Ten Player of the Year. Drew hit 14 homers with 51 rbis while batting .326. All while playing excellent defense (he had no errors for the season). Nice going, Drew!

Five Illini made the All-Big Ten team first team.

1B- Dusty Bensko
OF- Drew Davidson
OF- Ryan Rogowski
C- Chris Robinson
SP- Brian Blomquist

and three made the second team.

2B- J.R. Kyes
DH- Mike Rohde
SP- Jimmy Conroy

Finally, Chris Robinson won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Honorees Award.

Official story from fightingillini.com

Congrats to all for a great season!!

But It’s Not Over Yet

As mentioned earlier, the Big Ten tournament begins tomorrow. Being the first place team, the Illini have a bye and don’t play till Thursday night.

Here is the tournament bracket:

You can find the bracket pdf here

Also, check out The Tournament Central web page.

Finally, a comment from Coach Jones regarding the Illini’s chances:

“I feel confident in our players. We didn’t have a hot, cold, hot, cold season like other teams. We just went hot, hot, hot and then cold.”

I hope that’s a good thing.

Good luck, team!!