Gophers baseball in first place!

Ok, we're tied with three other teams for first place at 10-8, and only two games out of last place, but it's still first place. Three games with last place Penn State (8-10), and then we go play first place OSU on the road, we've got a chance to win the regular season title. Still have a chance to get back on a .500 overall record.

I'm thinking of taking my three year old daughter to the game against Penn State this Sunday. She had a great time at the spring VB game against Marquette - she followed Goldy all over the place, and she did well at the football spring game, so maybe we will try a baseball game.

The Gophers are now in first place all alone going into Sunday's game. TJ Oakes pitched a great game yesterday, while both Michigan and Purdue lost.

Big 10 tourney

Now that Sunday's Big 10 games are done, the Gophers go into next weekend with a one-game lead over Michigan and Purdue, two games over Northwestern and three over four other teams. I don't see a way, even if they get swept next week at OSU, that they don't make the Big 10 tournament. Because of next week's matchups (MSU-Northwestern, Illinois-Indiana, Purdue-Iowa, Michigan-PSU), it doesn't look like enough teams can leapfrog the Gophers to keep them out of the tournament.

With that said, let's put our foot down on the Buckeyes' throats, sweep them ######s and keep them out of the Big 10 tournament.

BTW, anyone hear any of the details of the Michigan-Northwestern on Sunday? Northwestern led 14-0 after the top of the second only to have Michigan shut them out the rest of the way. In the bottom of the ninth with two outs, Michigan homers to tie it and then homers again in the 10th to win it. Amazing but I would rather have it go the other way.

Pitching

Wimmers will be back for the games against OSU. If we take two out of three that would be a big accomplishment. We are now in the drivers seat so hopefully we'll play well at OSU. Gophers have gotten great pitching as of late.

Big Ten Tournament

Not 100% sure on this, but if BTT were held today:

1. Minnesota (13-8) bye
2. Michigan (12-9) bye

3. Purdue (12-9) vs. 6. Michigan State (10-11)
4. Northwestern (11-10) vs. 5. Ohio State (10-11)

It would be nice if Gophers can completely knock the Buckeyes out of the tournament, which is being held in Columbus. Big Ten clearly is going to be a 1-bid league this year, so it should make for an exciting tournament.

Final Weekend Series (Thursday-Saturday)
Gophers (13-8) @ The Ohio State (10-11)
Illinois (9-12) @ Indiana (10-11)
Michigan (12-9) @ Penn State (8-13)
Michigan State (10-11) @ Northwestern (11-10)
Purdue (12-9) @ Iowa (10-11)

I took a look at the schedule, the Gophers have clinched a place in the tournament. There are tow teams, Illinois and Penn State that cannot catch up with the Gophers. There are four teams who could tie the Gophers record with a sweep win and a Gophers sweep loss. But since they play each other, they can't all sweep.

Upcoming series:
Illinois and Indiana: Indiana has to sweep to catch up to us.
Michigan and PSU:
Purdue and Iowa: Iowa needs to sweep to catch us. But if they do sweep, we would have a better record than Purdue.
Minnesota and OSU: Let's just take care of this
MSU and Northwestern: Northwestern needs to sweep to catch us, but if they sweep, we would have a better record than MSU.

We're guaranteed no worse than 6th place, even if we get swept next weekend.