Game 1
Purdue 3 Illinois 1
Starting Pitchers:
· Purdue — LHP Zach Erdman (4-1, 4.61 ERA)
· Illinois — LHP Aidan Flinn (1-2, 2.48 ERA)
The curse of the tarp is broken for Purdue baseball after an eighth inning comeback over Illinois to start off Day 2 of the Big Ten Baseball Tournament. The Boilermakers had lost all five of their tournament games since 2022 when they scammed their way into the tourney by choosing not to tarp their field in the final series of the season. Today, they pulled off a 3-1 win despite a gem of a pitching performance from Illini lefty Aidan Flinn.
It was all about the pitching on both sides of the matchup as Zach Erdman matched Flinn’s efforts through five scoreless innings. He conceded the first run of the game as Illinois second baseman Michael Farina led off the top of the sixth with a single and then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jack Zebig. Right after that, Illini freshman star A.J. Putty smoked a single that scored Farina and put Illinois on top 1-0.
Flinn continued to pitch strong, holding on to that slim lead into the bottom of the 8th. Up to that point he had only given up one run to Purdue and faced more than three batters in an inning just twice. He started the 8th off with a strikeout of Jackson Bessette and seemed on his way to another quick inning. But that was not to be the case as he plunked pinch-hitter Quincy Malbrough after being ahead in the count, and then turned around and hit Dylan Drake.
All of a sudden, Purdue had two on and one out, and were facing a pitcher that had suddenly lost control of his pitches and could not find the strike zone. Next up was the nine-hole hitter Westin Boyle who trotted to first after a five-pitch walk. Flinn had completely melted down and was replaced by another lefthander, Reed Gannon.
Eli Anderson, at the top of the order, stepped in to face Gannon with bases loaded and ripped a single right back at the pitcher. The ball deflected just a bit off his leg but still got through the infield, scoring two and putting Purdue on top 2-1. They scored another run right away as Brandon Rogers laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to score Boyle.
The Boilers went to their closer Jake Kramer in the top of the ninth and he shut down the Illini with a pair of strikeouts and a weak grounder to first base. Curse broken and a Purdue 3-1 win allows them to play another day.
Illinois becomes the first team out of the tournament. Aidan Flinn deserved better today, but his teammates were stymied by a strong effort from the Purdue pitching staff. The Boilermakers will face the winner of Ohio State and Rutgers at 2:00 Thursday to see who gets to stick around and play against the big boys and who goes home.
Game 2
Ohio State 3 Rutgers 2
Starting Pitchers:
· Ohio State — RHP Pierce Herrenbruck (6-3, 3.45 ERA)
· Illinois — RHP Zack Konstantinovsky (1-3, 5.48 ERA)
The story of the second game of Day 2 between Ohio State and Rutgers was the 98-pitch complete game tossed by Buckeye junior righthander Pierce Herrenbruck. Complete games are an unusual occurrence, but under the stress of a conference tournament and facing elimination, almost unheard of. Credit head coach Justin Haire for showing the confidence in his starter to stick with him.
Herrenbruck’s counterpart in the first base dugout, Zack Konstantinovsky, was very good today as well. Outside of a solo home run to Henry Kaczmar in the bottom of the fourth, he had done a very good job keeping the bases clear of Buckeyes. He did show some fatigue in the bottom of the sixth after his team had taken a lead and gave up a game-tying run.
Rutgers took advantage of Ohio State’s sloppy defense and took the lead for the first time in the top of the sixth inning. With one out, Chase Krewson tripled to right-centerfield. Had he not stumbled around second base, he could have perhaps turned that into an inside-the-park home run. The Buckeyes then intentionally walked the dangerous Peyton Bonds for the second time in the game. Sensing the big moment, Coach Steve Owens put Matt Chatelle in to pinch-run for the big slugger.
Gabriel Rivera then took a four-pitch walk from Herrenbruck to load the bases with one out. Up came Ryan Jaros and the fun began for the Scarlet Knights. Jaros slapped a ground ball right at second base. All Lee Ellis had to do was field it, step on second and fire to first for an easy double-play. However, Ellis fumbled and kicked it enough that everyone was safe and Rutgers put their first run across. Right after that on another infield ground ball, Buckeye first baseman Dane Harvey committed an error and another run scored. Lee Ellis, backing up the play did pick up the ball this time and fired to home to nail Rivera trying to score. At that point, Rutgers was up 2-1.
As mentioned above the Buckeyes came back in the bottom of the inning to tie the game as Alex Bemis scored on a Noah Furcht single. Furcht’s hit came off Joe Mazza, who had come in relief of Konstantinovsky.
With the game tied at two-all, one could sense the tension in the ball park. Both teams were scoreless in the seventh inning and Rutgers went down in order in the top of the 8th inning. Bemis led off the bottom half with a double, his second hit of the game. Mazza battled and got the next two batters out and kept Bemis at second. That didn’t last with Buckeye Big Boy Dane Harvey lacing a double of his own the opposite way to left-center to score Bemis. That ended up being the winning run as Herrenbrock worked around a couple of Rutgers singles in the ninth to end it.
Ohio State wins and advances and will play again Thursday in the 5:00 game against the winner of Washington and Michigan. Rutgers returns to New Jersey with their season over.
Game 3
Michigan State 4 Iowa 3
Starting Pitchers:
· Iowa — RHP Joe Husak (1-1, 6.52 ERA)
· Michigan State — RHP Carter Monke (4-5, 4.90 ERA)
For the third game in a row, pitching ruled the day and runs were hard to come by. Sparty starter Carter Monke was really good, as was Gannon Grundman who came in for him in the sixth. Iowa’s starter Joe Husak did struggle a bit in the second inning and Coach Rick Heller made the decision to pull him early and replaced him with Justin Hackett, who struggled but worked around trouble into the fourth inning when Kyle Alivo was brought in. Both coaches recognized the significance of this game and chose to act before the game got away from them.
Iowa took a quick lead in their usually aggressive way. First time lead-off batter Ben Swails started the bottom of the first off with a single and then stole second. He advanced to third when Gable Mitchell hit a ground ball to the second baseman and then scored on a fly ball to leftfield. 1-0 Iowa after one inning. After that, Monke toughened up and kept them from scoring any more runs through the fifth.
In the meantime, Michigan State tied the game in the top of the second and then took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning when Hackett walked three Spartans before he was pulled, and then one of them scored when Nick Williams hit a ground ball to the shortstop whose only play was to first.
Two innings later, Iowa went on top by a run when the top of their lineup came through. With one out Swails doubled and scored on a Mitchell single. Then Mitchell swiped second base to put himself in scoring position. He scored when Jaixon Frost record the third hit of the inning to make it 3-2 Hawkeyes.
Sparty came back quick and tied it in the top of the seventh when Parker Picot reached by being hit by Alivo and scored when catcher Matthew Delgado dropped the third strike, which would have been the third out, and sailed his throw well over the head of first baseman Caleb Wulf. Picot raced home from second base making it 3-3. Grundman retired six Hawkeyes in a row taking the tie to the ninth.
After Picot flew out to open the inning, Isaac Sturgess singled. An obviously fatigued Kyle Alivo then hit both Randy Seymour and C.J. Deckinga to load the bases. The Iowa staff opted to stick with their best reliever and then Ryan McKay poked a single through the left side to score Sturgess and put Michigan State up 4-3.
The one run lead was enough as Nolan Higgins came on in the bottom of the ninth and ended it for the Hawkeyes with a fly out and a couple of strikeouts.
Michigan State has the day off tomorrow and has advanced to the quarter-finals. Iowa will play again tomorrow in an elimination game.
An interesting statistic is that Michigan State left 15 runners on base and Iowa left four. Iowa pitching wasn’t great, but it, along with their defense kept things from getting out of hand. On the flip side, Spartan pitchers simply kept Iowa off the bases where they can create so much chaos.
Game 4
Washington 7 Michigan 1
Starting Pitchers:
· Washington — RHP Jackson Thomas (2-4, 5.13 ERA)
· Michigan — RHP Kurt Barr (5-4, 4.40 ERA)
Finally we were promised a battle between two teams’ aces. Only one didn’t go so well. Kurt Barr came out firing in the first inning for Michigan, looking unhittable. But then in the 2nd, he completely lost his feel for the bottom of the zone. Barr walked a batter then got to a 3-1 count on Husky third baseman Blake Wilson, and had to try and take some off his fastball to get it over. Wilson destroyed it into the bleachers for a 2-run blast.
A leadoff in the 3rd was all the Michigan staff needed to see to replace him. Showing how urgent winning this game is, they brought their 2nd most effective starter, David Lally Jr in. Lally gave up a double off the left field wall that allowed a runner to score to make it 3-0 Huskies.
Washington’s Jackson Thomas was on point in his khaki pants. He hammered the bottom of the zone with his sinker. After walking Michigan’s leadoff batter, Thomas retired 11 straight Wolverines, 6 of the 11 by strikeout.
It took Michigan until the 6th inning to finally get to Thomas. Back to back singles put runners on the corners and a sac fly scored the first Wolverines run of the game. Two more singles appeared to score another run, but the Michigan runner tripped rounding 3rd, he was able to scamper back to the base, but he had another runner right behind him who was gunned down heading back to second. Thomas’s 9th strikeout on pitch number 106 stranded two baserunners.
Lally had stabilized the game on the mound for Michigan, but as he neared 90 pitches in the 7th, he began to give up a lot more hard hit balls. He hit a batter, then gave up a double, that could have been caught by the right fielder. (What is it with right fielders from the state of Michigan in this park??) Last nights hero for Washington Mic Paul struck again late into the night. A solid single brought in both runners and extended the lead to 5-1.
The Huskies best hitter, Jackson Hotchkiss added a 2 run home run, his 20th on the season, to straightaway center, a rare feat in this park. Something only guys like Pete Alonso, have done. That gave us the final score, a 7-1 Husky win. Washington moves on to take on Oregon on Friday, and we get to watch The Game: Baseball Version on Thursday evening for the right to advance to take on Nebraska.
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