You have to give the Purdue Boilermakers baseball team some credit. They really dominated in 2012. Now, after their Big Ten Tournament win on Saturday they’ll be heading to the NCAA regionals.
In all the years that I’ve been following Big Ten Baseball, I’ve never seen a team win as consistently as the Boilermakers did this year. They began the 2012 non-conference season by winning 14 of their first 15 games. The Boilermakers then dominated their Big Ten opponents, going 17-7 and giving them their first conference title since 1909. Purdue breezed through the Big Ten Tournament defeating Ohio State 5-4 and Indiana 3-0. They then faced Indiana again in an intense, hard-fought Tournament Championship game and came through as the victor, 6-5. It was the first time Purdue has claimed the Big Ten Tournament Championship since its inception in 1981.
All that shouldn’t be a surprise. For the year, the Boilermakers as a team led the Big Ten in hitting (.318) and pitching (3.10 ERA). With that combination, it’s hard to lose games. Add to that Big Ten Player of the Year catcher Kevin Plawecki and Coach of the Year Doug Schreiber and you have a recipe for a trip to the Regionals. Purdue was officially selected as a NCAA Regional host and games will take place at the U.S. Steel Yard ballpark in Gary, Indiana. Purdue is scheduled to play Friday evening against Valparaiso.
One unfortunate note for Purdue though … they’ll be without the services of third baseman Eric Charles on Friday. Due to a hard slide and the ensuing bench-clearing brawl during the Big Ten Tournament Championship game (video), Charles and Indiana Hoosier Casey Smith will be suspended for one game. In Smith’s case, he’ll serve his game in 2013, but Purdue will feel the effect a lot more, since Charles will have to miss the first game of the NCAA Regionals.
Fortunately for the Big Ten, Purdue will have some company in the NCAA Regionals. Michigan State received an at-large bid to participate in the Regionals. This will be the first time since 1979 that the Spartans (13-11, 37-21 overall) have played past the Big Ten Tournament. They’ll be playing in the Palo Alto Regional and will be starting off against Pepperdine on Friday.
Congratulations and good luck to both Big Ten teams!
In other Big Ten Baseball news
There has been a lot of talk recently about moving away from the traditional Big Ten baseball spring schedule. There have been a few head coaches, primarily Minnesota’s John Anderson and Purdue’s Doug Schreiber, who have been putting forth some ideas that turned some heads. Playing conference games in the summer? Maybe playing in the fall? The Daily Illini published a good article this past week complete with quotes from big players in the Big Ten baseball community.
My take as a simple fan and observer? Big Ten baseball is going through some major growing pains. That’s not a bad thing, though. There are a lot of issues that Big Ten officials (who know more than I do) will need to sort through. Issues like how any changes would affect RPI ratings, players’ position in the MLB draft, and yes, fans’ enjoyment of the game.
Illini Baseball fans may want to check out FightingIllini.com’s Collegiate Summer League web page. Assistant Sports Information Director Ben Taylor has done a good job listing all of our Illinois baseball players and what summer team they are playing for this summer. Illinois is sending 23 players to 11 teams in seven different collegiate leagues. The team and league names are linked to their official web pages so you can follow your favorite Illini player. My pick for a fun quick day trip? The Springfield Sliders team is less than two hours away and hosts four Illini players.
Finally, don’t forget, next week is Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft, commonly known as simply the Rookie Draft. Maybe I’m superstitious but I don’t like to speculate on which Illinois baseball players will get drafted. That said, I’m fairly confident that come June 4–6, we’ll see some University of Illinois players listed on the Draft Tracker. MLB.com’s Draft Central is the place to go for all the draft information if you want to keep an eye on that.