With Illinois’ good showing at the Keith LeClair Classic, I thought we might have seen a mention of one of our players in the Big Ten weekly awards (Nick Blackburn for Freshman of the Week, anyone?).
Alas, Ohio State had three legit contenders and swept the awards:
Player: Aaron Gretz, So., OSU
Pitcher: Brad Goldberg, Sr., OSU
Freshman: Troy Kuhn, OSU
Indeed with their help, Ohio State won all three games at Port Charlotte, Florida, extending their winning streak to five games after losing their first two of the season. Like Illinois, Minnesota won three games of four in the relative comforts of the Metrodome. In fact, the Golden Gophers will be playing their next sixteen games at their home away from home..
Don’t look now but Northwestern is 4-3 after the first two weekends. They also won three this past weekend.
But what’s with Nebraska? The team that’s picked to come in second in our conference has started out the season 0-7. I’ll tell you the reason why.. They’ve had tough competition. In addition to playing Cal-State Fullerton twice in the first weekend, they opposed University of Texas for three game last weekend. The 6-1 Longhorns are ranked #25 in the nation. Not to make excuses for our new brethren in the Big Ten but they have a tough row to hoe this early season. By no means am I counting them out when it comes to conference season.
The current Big Ten standings as of today:
| Big Ten | Overall | |||
| Team | Record | Pct. | Record | Pct. |
| Ohio State | 0-0 | .000 | 5-2 | .714 |
| Northwestern | 0-0 | .000 | 4-2 | .667 |
| Illinois | 0-0 | .000 | 4-3 | .571 |
| Minnesota | 0-0 | .000 | 4-3 | .571 |
| Indiana | 0-0 | .000 | 3-2 | .600 |
| Iowa | 0-0 | .000 | 3-3 | .500 |
| Michigan State | 0-0 | .000 | 3-3 | .500 |
| Purdue | 0-0 | .000 | 3-5 | .375 |
| Michigan | 0-0 | .000 | 2-4 | .333 |
| Penn State | 0-0 | .000 | 1-5 | .167 |
| Nebraska | 0-0 | .000 | 0-7 | .000 |
Jock Jams 2013
In totally unrelated news, I’m sure the freshman on the Illini baseball team are all rehearsed for their performance for Wednesday night’s Jock Jams at Huff Hall. I have no idea what they are planning to do but I’ll bet it will be fun. I’m planning on going and so is the Missus. If you’re interested in attending here are the details.