Here’s a rundown of day one action from the third annual BIG EAST/Big Ten Baseball Challenge, courtesy Bo Carter of the NCBWA…
Friday, Feb. 18 – Big East members were designated home teams
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – After an exhilarating morning, afternoon and evening of intersectional baseball in the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge, area baseball fans – college, pros and high school, all interests – can see some exciting baseball at three of the famed venues around St. Petersburg and Clearwater areas Saturday and Sunday in the third annual BIG EAST/Big Ten Conference Baseball Challenge.
First-day highlights included the fourth-ever shutout in 62 games of the Challenge, three major comeback victories from large deficits, Purdue’s upending of No. 8 nationally Connecticut, daring base running, and some fielding plays in season openers that would make Major Leaguers envious.
Saturday the Challenge moves to Bright House Stadium in Clearwater (the spring home of the Philadelphia Phillies) for 4 and 7:30 p.m. tussles among Notre Dame-Purdue (The Hoosier State Classic) and Iowa-Pittsburgh, respectively,
Day passes are available at stadium gates for $10, all-tourney packages still can be obtained for $25 for 16 games Saturday and Sunday, and parking passes for all venues for the Challenge are $15 for the remaining two days.
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Game 1 – West Virginia 5, Iowa 0 – Jack Russell Memorial Stadium
CLEARWATER, Fla. – West Virginia built a five-run early lead and coasted past Iowa 5-0 in game one of the third annual Big East/Big Ten Conference Baseball Challenge, hosted by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission (www.Floridasbeachsports.com), Friday.
The 1-0 Mountaineers, 48th in NCAA Division history with 1,927 all-time victories prior to 2011, got solid opening-day hurling from a pair of moundmen. The WVU mound combination of winning pitcher Jonathan Jones (two hits over 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts) and Marcus Broadwater blanked the Hawkeyes the final two-plus innings on a pair of hits with two strikeouts. West Virginia tossed just the fourth shutout in the first 58 games of the Challenge. The team also became the fifth squad in Challenge history to work nine innings without a walk.
SS Grant Buckner belted a pair of home runs and drove in three of the Mountaineers’ runs to lead a 12-hit attack. Brady Wilson, Matt Frazer and Mark Dvoroznak each contributed two hits to the 12-safety attack.
Iowa, 0-1, saw its ace Jared Hippen roughed up for 11 hits over six innings in the loss while SS Kurt Lee managed half the Hawkeyes’ hits with two.
Game 2 – Penn State 8, Seton Hall 6 – Al Lang Field
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Penn State outlasted Seton Hall 8-6 in game two of the third annual Big East/Big Ten Conference Baseball Challenge, hosted by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission (www.Floridasbeachsports.com), Friday.
The Nittany Lions, playing in their season opener and the co-first game NCAA Division I baseball contest of 2011 (along with Iowa-West Virginia at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater), struck initially in the top of the second inning on a two-run single by 1B Joey Bernardis. Seton Hall broke its shutout by tallying on a wild pitch later that inning.
The game, which pitted the No. 57 all-time NCAA DI wins’ leader in PSU against No. 58 SHU, was close throughout as the Pirates actually outhit Penn State and mounted a belated, three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth. After a pair of errors resulted in unearned runs, the Nittany Lions made the final putout on an infield grounder. Relief man Ryan Ignas held on for the win after firing 3 2/3 innings and allowing just one earned run. He did not strike out nor walk any of the 17 batters he faced.
PSU pitching was plagued bya Challenge-record seven hit batsmen while the Nittany Lions bunched just enough hits (seven) to give the Big Ten entry the win. SHU’s Will Walsh missed a NCAA record for hit batsmen in a game by one as he advanced four times to first via HBP.
OF Ryan Sullivan and C Frank Esposito each garnered two hits and drove in a run for the Pirates in the loss. The Big Ten also maintained a 29-27 advantage 56 games into the closely-contested challenge.
Game 3 – St. John’s 14, Minnesota 1 – Jack Russell Memorial Stadium
CLEARWATER, Fla. – St. John’s won its sixth game in seven tries over three years (a Challenge record) by thumping Minnesota 14-1 Friday in the first round of the Big East/Big Ten Challenge presented by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission.
The Red Storm raced to a 11-1 lead through seven innings and added insurance tallies in the highest score by one team here on the opening weekend of so-called “defused” bats (lower velocity of baseball coming off metal bats) in Division I baseball.
Starter Sean Hansen (1-0) had another stellar afternoon among many solid first-day showings on the mound in the Challenge with five innings, three hits allowed and four strikeouts. He kept 2011 momentum for the winning crew, which went 43-20 and finished second in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional last June.
Eight starters led the Big East powerhouse with two hits apiece (four had two RBI or two runs each) as TJ Oakes was tagged with the pitching loss for the Golden Gophers, chosen as the Big Ten favorite by a 2011 preseason vote of coaches. Minnesota’s offense came primarily from 1B Nick O’Shea with a pair of singles.
Game 4 – Cincinnati 11, Ohio State 5 – Al Lang Field
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Ohio State rattled off five runs and 11 hits in the first four innings and then succumbed to 11 unanswered runs and 18 hits (tied for the second-highest team goal total in Challenge annals) in a 11-5 win by the BIG EAST Bearcats during the third annual BIG EAST/Big Ten Baseball Challenge.
Cincy began its comeback with six runs in the middle innings and iced the tussle with five in the bottom of the eighth inning. DH Justin Glass did most of the damage with four hits (second-most in Challenge annals) and a RBI for the Bearcats, who still trailed 5-2 in the bottom of the third inning. Justin Riddell tripled in two runs as UC tagged the Buckeyes’ Jared Strayer with the mound loss in both crews’ season openers.
OSU was slicing the ball to all areas of the park before relief man Corey Hough (winning hurler) shut the door on Ohio State with two hits yielded over four shutout innings. CF Tim Wetzel lad an array of four players with two hits each to pace the eventual 13-hit barrage by the Buckeyes.
Cincinnati also carried over offense from a 12-4 triumph over its in-state rival in the final game of the 2010 Challenge. The Bearcats face Illinois at 10 a.m. (EST) at Clearwater’s Jack Russell Memorial Stadium Saturday while the Buckeyes move to Bright House Field (spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies) to greet Louisville at 4 p.m. (CDT).
Day passes remain available at stadium gates for $10, all-tourney packages still can be obtained for $25 for 16 games Saturday and Sunday, and parking passes for all venues for the Challenge are $15 for the remaining two days.
Game 5 – Pittsburgh 10, Illinois 6 – Jack Russell Memorial Stadium
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Pittsburgh broke open a 1-0 Illinois lead in the fifth inning with an 10-run rally to continue the BIG EAST’s Friday dominance in the BIG EAST/Big Ten Conference Baseball Challenge during a 10-6 victory over Illinois.
The Panthers of coach Joe Jordano, making their first appearance in the Challenge, used a pair of bunts to throw off its Big Ten foe defensively and scored nine of the 10 runs with two outs.
Illinois, which had split six games in the joust prior to Friday, battled back in the final stanzas but could not bunch enough runners and clutch hits to turn the tide. David Chester of the Panthers delivered the big blow in the rally with a three-run triple and added a single and double to miss hitting for the cycle by a homer.
Panthers’ senior pitcher Corey Baker received the benefit of the big rally support in winning his first game of the campaign in both teams’ season openers. Pitt was a 38-18 finisher with 18 BIG EAST victories last spring and is rated one of the top four contenders in the league this year. Baker worked six-plus innings and surrendered just one earned run.
Illinois seeks to regain its swagger Saturday in an early 10 a.m. (EST) start against Cincinnati at Jack Russell Stadium.
Game 6 – Louisville 6, Michigan 3 - Al Lang Field
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Louisville repeated 2010 BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge history by downing Big Ten Conference power Michigan 6-3 in Game Six of the third annual tourney sponsored by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission Friday.
Like several of its counterparts in Round One, the Cardinals built a 5-0 lead and then held on for dear life against a better hitting batch of Wolverines for the three-run verdict. Louisville topped UM 2-0 at then-Dunedin Stadium in a Challenge-record 12-strikeout showing against one of the better contact teams in the Midwest.
1B Garrett Stephens of UM belted the only home run (a two-run shot) in three games at Al Lang Field during a day where the Gulf breezes blew in for the majority of the time. It was not enough to offset early power hitting by the Cardinals, who outhit their Big Ten counterparts 13-5 with FR Drew Haynes contributing three safeties.
Cardinals’ righty Matt Koch withstood middle inning challenges from the Michigan lineup and held on for his initial win of the season with six whiffs over five opening frames as UL won for the 51st time in the last 65 games going back to Feb. 2010.
Michigan’s starter and losing moundman Bobby Brosnahan of the Wolverines, who still are the fourth-leading program in NCAA Division I baseball history with 2,669 wins, gave up eight hits and five earned runs in the opening five innings.
Game 7 – Michigan State 2. Notre Dame 1 – Florida Auto Exchange Stadium
DUNEDIN, Fla. – Michigan State edged Notre Dame 2-1 in game seven of the third annual Big East/Big Ten Conference Baseball Challenge, hosted by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission (www.Floridasbeachsports.com), Friday.
The contest was the first of two played Friday at the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays – Florida Auto Exchange Stadium – and the second of three Big Ten victories in eight clashes.
MSU’s Kurt Wunderlich had one of the longest performances of the opening round with seven innings as the starter, scattering six hits and fanning four. He picked up the win, but Notre Dame’s initial hurler Brian Dupra was nearly as effective with seven hits, seven innings, five strikeouts, and no walks.
The Spartans’ Torsten Boss, who was 3-for-4 on the day, produced his bext contact of the day with a fielder’s choice grounder and game-winning RBI off Dupra in the top of the fifth inning.
Fighting Irish 3B Greg Sherry equaled Boss’ three hits as 2B Frank DeSico drove in ND’s only run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Notre Dame takes on Purdue at 4 p.m. at Al Lang Field Saturday while MSU tries for a 2-0 start by facing Seton Hall in a 10 a.m. rematch of MSU’s 5-3 victory over the Pirates in ’10.
Game 8 – Purdue 10, Connecticut 1 – Florida Auto Exchange Stadium
DUNEDIN, Fla. – Purdue scored one of the biggest intersectional wins in program history with a 8-1 victory over No. 8 nationally (Baseball America) Connecticut in game eight of the third annual Big East/Big Ten Conference Baseball Challenge, hosted by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission (www.Floridasbeachsports.com), Friday.
In what appeared to be the second pitchers’ duel of the evening at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, Huskies’ lefthander Elliot Glynn walked in a run with the bases loaded to start the scoring with an RBI pass to OF Tyler Spillner.
Purdue broke open the 1-0 nailbiter with three consecutive hits in the top of the fifth. Cameron Perkins tripled in the second run before catcher Kevin Plawecki singled in Perkins. OF Angelo Cianfrocco singled in yet another marker in the seventh frame to extend the lead to 4-0. UConn finally broke against Boilers’ relief man Joe Haase in the bottom of the seventh on Nick Ahmed’s fielder’s choice RBI groundout before Purdue pushed across two more runs in the eighth and one in the ninth. Ahmed later set a Challenge game record with two triples along with a double to pace UConn’s six-hit attack.
Boilermakers’ senior righty Matt Morgan kept the Huskies at bay on two hits over the first five frames and left with two outs in the bottom of a shutout sixth. Elliot was touched for seven safeties to result in the first three markers. The Boilermakers, who finished strongly to go 33-24 overall last season, pulled off their first win over a Top 10 poll team for the first time in over a decade.
At the end of eight intraconference games Friday, the BIG EAST and Big Conferences were completely even at 31-31 in 62 Challenge encounters since 2009 Friday after a capturing the BIG EAST capture five of eight games in Round One of 2011. The BIG EAST also has rolled in the last two sessions of the Challenge going back to Feb. 28, 2010, with 13 wins in the last 18 matchups with the Big Ten.