Game 1
Purdue 8 Iowa 1
Starting Pitchers:
· Purdue — RHP Austin Klug (6-3, 5.57 ERA)
· Iowa — RHP Cole Moore (3-0, 5.09 ERA)
Fourth time is a try for the Purdue Boilermakers as they finally got a win over Iowa this season. Last weekend they were swept on the road by the Hawkeye, but today they got ‘em. Even though Iowa put a runner on base every inning but the first, their offense was for the most part inept as they could not string anything together. Iowa is at the best when they get runners on base and create
chaos. That didn’t happen today.
Purdue starter Austin Klug went 4.2 innings today and lefty Jarvis Evans went the rest of the way. Klug did a solid job though Iowa did take a lead in the fourth inning thanks to Miles Risley reaching on an error and scoring two batters later when Jaixon Frost drove a single to leftfield. It was a little surprising that Klug was pulled with two outs in the fifth, but apparently coach Greg Goff saw something casual fan didn’t.
The Boilers jumped all over Hawkeye relievers Brolan Frost and Tyler Guerin in the bottom of the fourth. Frost walked Jackson Bessette and C.J. Richmond to start the inning and was pulled in favor of Guerin. He promptly gave up a triple to Dylan Drake that scored two. Drake then scored when the nine-hole batter Westin Boyle hit a deep fly to center. After four innings, Purdue was up 4-1.
The Indiana boys swung Pete’s hammer again in the sixth inning to put more of a beating on Tyler Guerin. Richmond saw that the Hawkeyes went into a pull-side shift and laid down an easy bunt to third, reaching first without a throw. Drake singled to put two on and no outs. Boyle then executed a bunt of his own and beat it out to first as none of the Hawkeyes could make a play. That loaded the bases. Bessette score on a sacrifice fly by Eli Anderson and then former Cornhusker Aaron Manias struck the big blow with a double that scored two more. Purdue had a 6-1 lead and Iowa showed little life the rest of the game.
Jarvis Evans gave up three hits once he came in to get the last out of the fifth, but did not leave many pitches in the zone that Iowa batters could put a barrel on. His defense backed him up and did not let a Hawkeye get past first base in the final 4.1 innings.
Purdue added a run in the seventh and another in the eighth by consistently putting the ball in play against a depleted Iowa bullpen. With the 8-1 win, the Boilermakers will move on to the quarterfinals to take on number one seed and number one ranked UCLA.
With rain in the forecast for Friday there is no word yet whether the Purdue players will be required to support the ground crew in tarping the field.
Game 2
Michigan 3 Ohio State 0
Starting Pitchers:
· Ohio State — RHP Gavin Kuzniewski (6-2, 4.90 ERA)
· Michigan — LHP Shane Brigham (5-4, 4.50 ERA)
While it was not a cloudy, chilly day in November, the fact that Ohio State and Michigan faced off against each other meant there would be a lot of intensity. From the opening pitch, there was a lot of noise and energy on the field and the fact that it was also an elimination game, just multiplied that.
Ohio State swept the Wolverines last week in their regular season ending series leaving the maize and blue wanting to at least take one chunk out of them for the season.
The Buckeyes put their Friday night starter Gavin Kuzniewski out on the mound against Michigan’s freshman Shane Brinham. From that perspective, one would think a slight edge would go to Ohio State. That said, Brinham moved into a weekend position late in the season and pitched very well. To no one’s surprise, this one was dominated by the right arm of Kuzniewski and the left arm of Brinham.
In a game like this it is imperative that a team take advantage of any break given to them or mistake made by the opposition. That happened in favor of Michigan in the top of the third inning. After striking out Drew Culbertson, he walked both Dane Morrow and Colby Turner. After a mound visit from the Buckeye pitching coach, he hit Brayden Jeffries with the very next pitch. All of a sudden, Michigan had bases loaded with one out and their cleanup hitter standing in the batter’s box. Noah Miller came through with a two-RBI double to put the Wolverines up 2-0. That was the only hit given up by Kuzniewski on the night.
Brinham was dominant and into the seventh inning had only allowed three hits and one Buckeye to reach second base. Ohio State had been one of the hottest hitting teams in the league over the last month and they could not get to him.
After giving up the two runs, Kuzniewski entered into a zone where he was unhittable. Even having thrown 120 pitches, Kuzniewski was still striking out Wolverines in the eighth inning and sat down 15 batters in a row until Colby Turner reached on an error for the second time in the game. After surrendering a walk to Jeffries, Kuzniewski’s night was over.
Ryan Zamora came on with two Wolverines on base and two outs. Noah Miller came up big again with his second hit of the game, driving in Turner, who had reached on an error. Going to the Buckeye half of the
Shane Brinham threw is 100th pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning and struck out Henry Kaczmar, Noah Furtch, and Dane Harvey, the Buckeyes best hitters. Harvey was his tenth K of the game, which was a career high for the lefty out of North Vancouver, British Columbia.
After Zamora struck out the side in the top of the ninth, Brinham was sent out to pitch the ninth for Michigan. He had not gone this deep in a game in his young career and had thrown 110 pitches. After giving up his fifth hit of the game to Maddix Simpson, he struck out Mason Eckelman, popped up Lee Ellis, and popped up Grant Mangrum to end the game.
Two incredible pitching performances tonight. Michigan got the win and advances with only two hits in the game. This was also the second complete game of the tournament for the Wolverines as their closer, Cade Montgomery went seven innings in a run-rule win over Rutgers. They will play Nebraska at 5:00 tomorrow night.
