Happy Valley Hardball

and the end wasn’t pretty.

As best I can tell from Gametracker.

Wanamaker gave us seven great innings, giving way to Hawkins in the eighth tied up 2-2. Hawk gives up an early single but gets the next two out. A walk brings in O’Neil. Then all hell broke lose. An error by Wine allows run three to score. A wild pitch by O’Neil brings in run four. A wild throw (assumingly on the same play as the WP) by Blackburn allows a runner to advance to third and score (my guess was the toss was wild to third base after the wild pitch).

Game ends when Blackburn singles, then Wine, Deese, and Marlin all strike out.

Here’s the box.

Troy University has a live stats game simulation working for our game.  Be warned, they take a LONG time to load and are best viewed using Internet Explorer.

Go here for the link.

Same lineup as last weekend.

• 7PM Friday vs Troy - Mike Wanamaker (1-0)
• 11AM Saturday vs Kennesaw State - Mike Lorentson (0-1)
• 11AM Sunday vs Wake Forest - Seth Whitehill (0-0)

CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports via kwout

Read the Wiregrass Classic Game Notes

Troy University (5-0)

Troy has gotten their season off to a solid start with a four game sweep of Rhode Island last weekend. They followed that up with a 3-1 Tuesday win over Penn State’s Saturday foe Kennesaw State.

Troy centerfielder Brian Miller, hitting out of the second spot, has a five game hitting streak going and currently sits at an even .300 for the season. Miller is also the team RBI leader with eight. 1st baseman/DH Daryl Otwell has also hit in every game and is pounding the ball at .478 clip with 8 hits in 17 at bats. But the batting leader for Troy is catcher Beau Brooks who’s got 7 hits in 14 at bats for a perfect .500 average.

Look for Ryan Ellison to get the start for Troy against the Nits. Ryan pitched solidly in the season opener against Rhode Island allowing just 4 hits and 2 earned runs in a 6 inning no decision start.

Lions looking to use ’small ball’ - The Daily Collegian Online via kwout

Early season errors not troublesome yet - The Daily Collegian Online via kwout

This is the first of many user visualizations that will appear on this site. On a weekly basis, I’ll be providing interactive charts that statistically compare the Big Ten teams hitting and pitching aling with the individual hitting and pitching stats for the PSU players. I’ll occasionally toss in some fielding stats too.

These charts are interactive and I encourage my visitors to play with them. You can select the statistics that you are interested in by clicking on the left hand column - ctrl-click will allow you to view multiple stats at once. You can also order the stats by clicking on values or labels buttons on the sort bar located at the bottom of the visualization.

I hope you find this worthwhile.

Looks like the Wolverines are serving notice on the rest of the conference.

The Official Site of The New York Mets: News: Notes: Wilpon in no-lose situation via kwout

Pythagorean expectation is a concept developed by sabermetrician Bill James that provides one of fundamental foundations for sabermetrics. It’s an empirical formula that says a baseball team’s expected winning percentage can be derived from the runs it has scored and the runs it has given up. Specifically, the formula says:

Winning Percentage = Runs Scored Squared/(Runs Scored Squared + Runs Allowed Squared)

The Pythagarean designation comes from its similarity to the famed Pythagarean Equation “a squared = b squared plus c squared”.

While James developed the equation empirically, later research uncovered the statistical science behind the formula.

Over the course of the season, I will be using the forumula to “project” the expected winning percentage for the Big Ten teams. You’ll be able to find these theoretical standings in the sidebar under Pythagorean Percent.

We’re just one weekend into the season, so one can expect the standings to be wildly inaccurate but, as long as I’m going to do this, I might as well step up to the plate swinging.

Here’s the current pythagoren expectation numbers.

The Daily Collegian Online via kwout

Big Ten opponent results from this weekend:

Illinois (2-1): Illinois started the season off going 2-1 in the Al Ogletree Classic in Edinburg TX. The Illini opened up with a 6-4 come from behind win over Sam Houston State on Friday. They dropped a close 2-1 decision to Texas State on Saturday but rebounded on Sunday when junior Aaron Martin (five innings) and Ben Reezer (four innings) combined for a 1-0 shutout win over Lamar.

Indiana (1-2): The Hoosiers hung tough as they opened at #34 LSU. They were routed 7-1 on Friday, came up short in a late rally to drop a 5-4 game on Saturday, but capped the weekend off with a come from behind 7-5 win on Sunday.

Iowa (1-2): The Hawkeyes traveled to Clearwater Fla to open their season. They knocked off Albany 8-3 in their opener opener on Friday, dropped a heartbreaking 14-13 extra inning game to Notre Dame on Saturday, then fell 3-1 to Liberty in the Sunday finale.

Michigan (3-0): Preseason Big Ten favorite Michigan showed why they are the favorites to repeat as conference champions as they swept all three games against Villanova at the New York Mets winter training grounds in Port St Lucie Fla. In the Friday opener, the Wolverines romped 13-4 over the Wildcats. Down 6-2 in the middle of the sixth inning on Saturday, Michigan scored 14 unanswered runs to down Nova 16-6. Their hot hitting continued as they pounded out 17 hits in an 18-9 romp on Sunday. They will need to keep those bats hot as they take on the Mets in an exhibition game at noon today.

Michigan State (2-1): Michigan State opened with an impressive 6-4 win over a Stetson team that won 40 games and qualified for the NCAA’s last season. #6 ranked Missouri put the Spartans back in their place as the Tigers rolled to a 14-9 win on Saturday. But MSU pounded UConn 11-1 on Sunday to leave Deland Fla on the winning side of the ledger. Spartan catcher Kyle Day went 3-4 with a grand slam to lead MSU to the victory.

Minnesota (0-3): The perennially strong Minnesota went winless this weekend but don’t write too much into it. The Gophers traveled to Oxford MS to take on the #4 ranked Ole Miss and they paid dearly. The Rebels showed their fans why they are one of the preseason favorites to win the College World Series as they pounded Minnesota winning 8-1 on Friday, 22-5 on Saturday, and 15-4 on Sunday.

Northwestern (2-1): Northwestern outfielder Mike Kalina claimed this year’s first Big Ten Player of the Week honors as he hit .500 and led the Wildcats to a two wins over Cal State Northridge. The Wildcats opened with a big 13-7 win on Friday, eked out a close 3-2 victory on Saturday, then dropped the series finale to the Matadors 17-9.

Ohio State (3-0): The Buckeyes took the Service Academies Spring Classic tournament crown with three wins over the weekend. Friday saw Ohio State start their season off with a 7-3 win over Arkansas State. They followed that with a hard fought 1-0 win over Memphis on Saturday. Sunday they took the title by defeating Big East powerhouse Seton Hall 6-5.

Purdue (0-3): Don’t let Purdue’s 0-3 mark this weekend fool you. They traveled to Waco TX to take on #15 ranked Baylor. Unfortunately, the Boilermakers came up a little short in each game dropping all three of their games by a single run. Baylor won 2-1 on Friday, 11-10 in eleven innings on Saturday, then 2-1 again on Sunday.

All in all, I would say it was a successful weekend for Big Ten baseball. The conference finished the weekend right at .500 with the only non redeeming performance being the 0-3 stomping that Ole Miss laid on Minnesota. So far the new uniform start date gets a big thumbs up.

“Big Ten Hardball” weighs in with this preview of the Nittany Lions club.

His overall assessment:

Bottom Line: Returning an experienced, productive team in 2008, Penn State should finish close to the top of the Big Ten standings and keep people coming to their new ballpark. However, hopes are a bit higher around State College where fans are whispering about a NCAA Tournament berth.

You may have noticed a column heading in the sidebar titled RPI Tracker.  My intention is to graphically plot Penn State’s RPI following each series.  At the moment, it’s #176 but a graph with only one data point looks a little silly, so we’ll have to wait another week for the first real chart to appear.