Gophers beat OSU in 1st game of twinbill

Win 3-2 with run in bottom of 9th.

Remain a game back of Michigan State. Sparty won earlier today, 3-0 over NW.

Gophers would have to finish ahead of (not tied) MSU to get the #1 seed for BTT, as Sparty swept season series.

Illinois, also a game back of MSU, hosts Indiana at 6 tonight.

SelectionSunday said:

Win 3-2 with run in bottom of 9th.

Remain a game back of Michigan State. Sparty won earlier today, 3-0 over NW.

Gophers would have to finish ahead of (not tied) MSU to get the #1 seed for BTT, as Sparty swept season series.

Illinois, also a game back of MSU, hosts Indiana at 6 tonight.

Click to expand...

Hopefully Indiana stays hot and wins the Illinois series, very important for the Gophers to at least get the 2 seed to get the first round bye in the Big 10 series.

Have we clinched a tournament spot? I looked at the standings, and it looks like there are seven teams alive for six tournament spots, and in the worst case, we could finish in a 4-way tie for 4th place or a 5-way tie for 3rd place. Do we win any of the tiebreakers?

My understanding is only MSU (14-8) has clinched a spot. Theoretically, six teams (Illinois, Gophers, Purdue, OSU, Indiana & PSU) all could finish 13-11, with one of those 6 getting left out. It'll be quite a bit more clear after today's games. Basically, anyone who gets to 14 conference wins assures a tourney spot, and those that get to 13 likely will make it.

Northwestern (9-12) and especially Iowa (9-13) are hanging by a thread. Both must win their last two games, then get a lot of help. I'm hoping both Indiana & Penn State somehow slip ahead of Ohio State. Would be nice bonus for the other teams if the host school (OSU) failed to make the tournament.

Here's the B1G's baseball tiebreakers.

http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/032311aae.html

After looking at the tiebreaker rules, it may be possible that they have clinched a spot, but it would be complicated to figure out. I'd have to go over each team's record against teams that teams that could wind up in a tie. By the time I calculated all that, today's games probably would be over anyway.

All they needed to do to clinch was win 1 game this weekend. They are clinched a spot in the tourney.