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!!