Week 3: Around the Big Ten

Don’t look now but Illinois is in first place in the Big Ten Baseball.

The current standings:


Big Ten
Overall
Team Record Pct. Record Pct.
Illinois 0-0 .000 7-4 .636
Indiana 0-0 .000 6-2 .750
Ohio State 0-0 .000 6-4 .600
Minnesota 0-0 .000 6-5 .545
Michigan 0-0 .000 5-5 .500
Northwestern 0-0 .000 4-2 .667
Michigan State 0-0 .000 4-4 .500
Iowa 0-0 .000 4-6 .400
Penn State 0-0 .000 3-6 .333
Purdue 0-0 .000 3-8 .273
Nebraska 0-0 .000 2-7 .222

 

I say this with a big disclaimer and not without a bit of trepidation. It’s early in the season and these are non-conference games.  Being on top makes yourself a target.  That all said, I love seeing the Orange and Blue doing so well!

I may sound like a broken record but with their breakthrough weekend in Arlington, I thought the Big Ten might see the light when it came to the conference weekly awards.  There certainly were some legitimate contenders.  Not this week though.  I have to admit, the the honorees were deserving.

Player:           Michael O’Neill, Jr., MICH

Pitcher:           Ben Meyer, So., MINN

Freshman:            Evan Hill, MICH

With help from O’Neill, who batted .474 this past weekend, and Hill, who pitched six scoreless innings against St Louis, Michigan managed to win three of four games over the weekend bringing their record up to an even .500.  Indiana (6-2) swept all three of their games which means they’re second to our 7-4 record.

Meanwhile Nebraska is finally showing their stuff as they won two games, their first wins of the year.

Big Ten Stats

After three full weekends, Illinois leads the conference in hitting with a .312 batting average.  They’re paced by conference leader Justin Parr who has a .479 average.  Indiana takes the lead in pitching with a mean 2.57 ERA.  Illinois is sixth with a 3.86 mark.

Some other individual names that are popping up… Michigan’s Michael O’Neill’s great weekend is helping his stats.  He’s third in hitting (.447) behind Indiana’s Sam tues brad 140-1778729977-OTravis (.448) and leads in doubles (6), total bases (30) and steals (7).  He’s also tied in runs with Illinois’ own Michael Hurwitz with 12.

Jordan Parr (left) and Justin Parr are neck and neck for the conference lead in rbis with 14 and 13 respectively while Justin leads the conference in hits with 23.

Finally, Iowa reliever, Ricky Sandquist has yet to give up an earned run in four appearances and 12 innings pitched.

In other news, good luck to former Illini Chris Robinson in the WBC!  He’s been slated to start as catcher for Team Canada.  His first game will be this Friday against Italy.

One Comment:

  1. Go Illini!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.