Happy Valley Hardball

Baseball - Penn State University Official Athletic Site via kwout

UncleLar Take:

Last week the SID took a little shortcut by combining the game notes for Lasalle and Youngstown State. It appears the shortcut this week is to just not produce a game notes for Villanova at all. Unfortunately, the Villanova SID doesn’t produce game notes for any of their games so readers are out of luck today.

Today will feature a battle of namesakes as Villanova has a Wes Borden playing for them also (coincidently, Nova’s Wes Borden is from State College).

Baseball prepares for more midweek games next season - The Daily Collegian Online via kwout

UncleLar Take:

Wine should consider playing a few weekend games in the fall. The games will count against the 56 game limit the team has but it might alleviate some of the pressure to fill up the schedule with midweek games. I’m not convinced that the schools around the Big Ten are going to be able to find enough quality midweek opponents during the regular season. Playing 2-4 games in the fall, perhaps booked around a football weekend, might alleviate some of the pressure to find a decent opponent and it might also draw large crowds.

Penn State inched up another spot to eighth in the conference despite giving up a ton of runs, forty nine to be exact, to Illinois in the four game set this weekend. It helped that the Nits also scored forty two on the Illini hurlers. Still the Nits projection is significantly behind their actual winning percentage.

Michigan had been slowly building a case for themselves as worthy of an at-large bid should they falter in the Big Ten Tournament. Their split with Indiana this weekend didn’t do their case any good as they slipped 5 spots to 44. At 44, they would definitely be a bubble team not an at-large lock.

Penn State continued their upward climb as they posted their sixth straight week with an improvement. They vaulted up another 18 spots as they reached 135 and have now overtaken Ohio State for fourth in the league.

Fitting farewell | Altoona Mirror via kwout

UncleLar Take:

I think I owe John Wilson an apology. It’s not that I publicly questioned his start for the Penn State Altoona ball club on senior day (I did link to a bunch of articles here on the blog) but privately I thought it was a nice token gesture on the PSA team’s part. I figured Wilson would probably strike out or walk and be removed for a pinch runner. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

From the Mirror article on yesterday’s Senior Day game.

Wilson, making his first career start Sunday in the first game of a doubleheader, went 2-for-3, scored two runs and made a diving catch in center field in a 10-5 victory over Franciscan.

He then went 1-for-4 with a double in the second game, a 9-1 victory over Franciscan.

Three for seven for the day, three runs scored, and a defensive gem in the outfield - so much for any token start. My apologies for doubting you, John Wilson, and my hats off to you again.

I’m hoping all those national publications that did the senior day story on Wilson do a follow up on his performance like the Pittsburgh Tribune Review has. It’s a story worth repeating.

Lions win two on road - The Daily Collegian Online via kwout

UncleLar Take:

Joe Blackburn’s comment ““I definitely don’t wanna say their pitching was weak but we’ve definitely seen better in the Big Ten” brought a smile to my face. If Blackburn had questions about the Illini staff, who gave up 43 runs to Penn State, I wonder what the Illinois players thought about the Penn State staff, who allowed 49 Illini to score?

PSU (10-10) at Illinois (11-9)

• Friday: Illinois 20 Penn State 11
• Saturday (1): Penn State 16 Illinois 5
• Saturday (2): Penn State 10 Illinois 7
• Sunday: Illinois 17 Penn State 6

Michigan (17-3) at Indiana (6-15)

• Friday: Michigan 14 Indiana 6
• Saturday (1): Indiana 2 Michigan 1
• Saturday (2): Michigan 11 Indiana 4
• Sunday: Indiana 11 Michigan 4

Minnesota (6-14) at Purdue (16-4)

• Friday: Purdue 6 Minnesota 2
• Saturday (1): Purdue 7 Minnesota 6
• Saturday (2): Purdue 7 Minnesota 5
• Sunday: Purdue 6 Minnesota 4

Ohio State (10-9) at Northwestern (10-10)

• Friday: Ohio State 11 Northwestern 2
• Saturday (1): Northwestern 6 Ohio State 4
• Saturday (2): Ohio State 13 Northwestern 1
• Sunday: Northwestern 14 Ohio State 8

Michigan State (7-13) at Iowa (6-14)

• Friday: Iowa 16 Michigan State 2
• Saturday (1): Michigan State 6 Iowa 3
• Saturday (2): Michigan State 16 Iowa 7
• Sunday: Michigan State 11 Iowa 10

UncleLar Take:

With a 2 1/2 game separation between 6th (NW and PSU) and 7th (MSU), we are starting to see a separation between the haves and have nots in the league. Six teams qualify for the Big Ten championships and it’s starting to look like those six will be Michigan, Purdue, Ohio State, Illinois, Penn State, and Northwestern. Also Michigan and Purdue have opened up a 4 1/2 game separation over third, so it looks like those two are pretty set for the first day tournament bye that goes to the top two squads.

The offensive onslaught in Champaign continued as, like Friday, it was the Illnini’s turn to light up the scoreboard. Illini scored two in the first, then broke it open with eight runs in the fourth to take an 11-0 lead.

The good news for the weekend is the Nits did what they had to, earned a 2-2 split in Champaign. Couple that with Northwestern’s split with Ohio State and you wind up with the three teams sitting in exactly the same spot as they did entering the weekend. PSU is in fifth, tied with Northwestern, a half game behind Ohio State, and a game behind Illinois.

With three weekends to go, the top six, Michigan, Purdue, Ohio State, Illiniois, PSU, and NW, look to be separating themselves from the non-contenders (only six qualify for the Big Ten Tournament). The good news for PSU is that their three remaining series with are all with non-contenders MSU, Iowa, and Minnesota. That should help them jockey for a better seeding in the Big Ten Tournament as each of the teams were are battling with for the third seed face a couple of difficult foes.

Here’s the matchups the others are facing.

Ohio State: Michigan, Illinois, Iowa
Illinois: Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue
Northwestern: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan

In a side note, Michigan split with Indiana this weekend and Purdue is now only a game behind the Wolverines in the standings.

PSU rebounded from the first game pounding that Illinois laid on them, to sweep the Illini this afternoon. The 2-1 start to the weekend moves the Nits into a tie with the Illini for fourth place a half game behind Ohio State who also started the weekend 2-1 over Northwestern.

Double plays in the bottom of each of the first three innings quieted the Illini bats while Cory Wine and Scott Kelley each hit a pair of homers to lead the Nits to a 16-5 win in the first game of today’s scheduled doubleheader. Mike Wanamaker picked up the win with a 7 inning complete game performance. Rob Yodice and Rick Marlin also homered.

Since I mentioned Wine’s poor performance on Wednesday, I’d be remiss if I didn’t specifically point out his 2-5, 2 HR, 2 runs scored, 5 RBI line in today’s game.