throwback

Helluva a comeback effort on Saturday and Sunday. Gotta give the team credit for showing some grit in those two games against a solid IU team after back to back 9th inning collapses. Not easy to bounce back like that. Glad to see the coaches just let Clark and Christo go Saturday and Sunday, rather than trying to play matchups. Not sure if we can survive using 6 or 7 pitchers the rest of the way, but that might be the only hope. The bats are still a major concern but did just enough Saturday and Sunday -- and IU helped us quite a bit Sunday.

Whatever "gritty" this team had on the road in Febr and March, they left it on the team bus. Some of the worst home meltdowns in the past few weeks I think I've ever seen in that ballpark. The season isn't over, but it feels like it. At this point, we have to try someone completely different at the back end. Maybe Clark or Christo. And just because the bullpen guzzled gasoline again, don't let the bats and the defense off the hook. Some god-awful base running blunders / near blunders, too. Another full team choke job for sure.

I know the pitching is going to get the blame, and the last 2 innings were a nightmare, but we also had some really good performances out of guys like Brockett, Clark, and Worthley that are really important for the postseason. The coaches saw what they needed to see out of those guys. Even Perry. It won't get much notice, but our defense was pretty bad in key spots once again last night and cost us runs. That's been a sneaky low-key problem most of the year. Yet, the biggest problem on this team continues to be an inability to get enough key hits. With our OBP and batting averages, we should be scoring far more runs than we are, especially against a team like SDSU. Getting 4 straight walks in the 1st and only scoring one killed us. That game should've been out of reach in the middle innings. Poor approaches at the plate and an inability to light up mediocre (or worse) pitching has been a problem for several weeks. If we don't win the B1G or advance in a regional, it'll be because of offense. In the big picture, this loss doesn't matter - we were out of the running for hosting because of our terrible mid-week performances earlier in the year and because of blowing 9th-inning leads multiple times (four now, I think), so this was just the cherry on top of both of those sh*t sundaes. We were going to be a #2 seed in the NCAAs with or without a win vs SDSU. Fortunately, the strength of this team - weekend pitching - moves to the forefront the rest of the year. And Brockett's sudden emergence gives us even more firepower on the mound for weekend series and the postseason. Just gotta find a way to get the bats going, and we could still make a nice run the next few weeks.

If we end up with a 13 and Indiana St gets a 12 .... never mind, no chance. At this point, I'm just hoping the committee doesn't stick it to us by sending us to Texas A&M or Arkansas as a #2.

He could - some of those hard-hit balls that found gloves last week are sure to find holes this week. The coaches are very interested to see if he's able to deliver a 2nd straight solid outing. If so, he'll figure big into our postseason plans.

Just thinking out loud, but they could let him go as long as he can Wednesday. If it goes well, he then could start the following Thursday against Mich St. Then he could start our first game in Omaha on the following Tue or Wed. https://bigten.org/base/article/bltb02f7ee2424b465f/

B1G standings thru week 7: 13-5 Illinois 12-6 NU 12-6 Purdue 12-6 Indiana 13-8 Iowa 11-7 Michigan 9-9 Mich St 10-11 Maryland 8-10 Ohio St 7-11 Penn St 7-11 Minnesota 4-14 Rutgers 2-16 N'western Week 8 B1G Schedule Indiana at NU Iowa at Illinois Purdue at Michigan Mich St at Minnesota N'western at Ohio St Rutgers at Penn St Maryland OFF Week 9 B1G Schedule NU at Mich St Illinois at Purdue Michigan at Indiana Ohio St at Rutgers Penn St at Maryland Minnesota at N'western Iowa OFF Remaining Schedule for Contenders Illinois: vs Iowa, at Purdue (remaining opponent record 25-14) NU: vs Indiana, at MSU (21-15) Indiana: at NU, vs Mich (23-13) Purdue: at Mich, vs Illinois (24-12) Michigan: vs Purdue, at Indiana (24-12) Iowa: at Illinois (13-5) We still have the easiest schedule remaining, although we missed a big chance to stamp ourselves at the favorite Sunday in Minneapolis. If Iowa can sweep Illinois this weekend, they'll be in the clubhouse with 16 wins and have a pretty decent shot of winning at least a share of the league, as crazy as that would seem. Maryland is going to be very interesting too. Their RPI is more than enough to be in the NCAAs, but if they struggle vs PSU in the final weekend, they could miss the B1G tourney and probably get left out of the NCAAs. Not likely, but who knows this season? _____ B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 12 weeks: 22 Nebraska (30-16) 35 Maryland -- WLW (31-18) (3 H) 61 Indiana (27-19) (3 H) 62 Illinois (28-16)* 63 Ohio St (23-22) -- WWL (3 H) 66 Rutgers (23-16) -- LWL (3 A) 69 Purdue (31-17)* 93 Michigan (25-23)* 102 Iowa (28-18) -- WWL (3 H) 103 Michigan St (21-23) (3 A) 120 Minnesota (21-21) -- WWL (3 A) 136 N'western (13-30) -- WWW (3 A) 149 Penn St (21-20)* * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 17 Oklahoma (29-17) -- L (1 N) 36 K-State (28-19) -- W (1 H) 53 Texas Tech (30-20) -- L (1 N) 54 Coll of Charleston (33-11) -- WWW (3 A) 60 bluebirds (31-14) -- LL (2 A) -- L (1 H) 64 Kansas (27-17) -- L (1 A) -- L (1 H) 65 South Alabama (27-20) -- LWW (3 H) 89 Nicholls (30-17) -- WWW (3 H) 90 Grand Canyon (29-18) -- WWLW (4 A) 112 Wichita St (24-26) -- WL (2 A) 133 Baylor (20-26) -- W (1 N) 151 New Mexico St (23-24) -- WW (2 H) 225 North Dakota St (16-25) -- W (1 H) 250 South Dakota St (17-25) (1 H) 291 Omaha (15-26) -- W (1 H) The Pac-4: 48 Oregon (32-15) 98 USC (22-25) 148 Washington (18-22-1) 196 UCLA (16-29) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 3-3 (6 total games) L – Oklahoma (N) LL – bluebirds (A) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) Q2: 10-8 (21 total games) L – Texas Tech (N) WL – Wichita St (A) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) L – Kansas (A) W – K-State (H) LWL – Rutgers (A) WLW – Maryland (H) WWL – Minnesota (A) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 11-4 (18 total games) W – Baylor (N) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) L – bluebirds (H) L – Kansas (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Indiana (H) Q4: 6-1 (8 total games) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) WWL – Iowa (H) --------- Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60 Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120 Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240 Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+ Teams on our schedule with the best chance of shifting to a different quad (in case we want to know who to cheer for): Iowa +2 to go to Q3 Maryland +10 to go to Q1 Rutgers +6 to go to Q1 Kansas (A) +4 to go to Q1 Coll of Charleston -7 to go to Q2 Minnesota -1 to go to Q3 Wichita -9 to go to Q3 Tex Tech -8 to go to Q3 bluebirds (A) -1 to go to Q2 Hosting chances are miniscule at this point. Boyd's World gives us 0% chance of getting into the Top 16 RPI before the end of the regular season, but maybe if we win out and win a few in the tourney that'd be enough to be Top 16 RPI. And we may not need Top 16 RPI to get to host, as the northern teams nearly always get a little benefit of the doubt from the selection committee, as they really want to give northern teams a chance to host if it's really close. So I'd stay still a chance, but it's going to take a huge finish. League race is going to be crazy. Wouldn't surprise me to see co- or tri-champions. We probably need at least 4-2 to be in the mix. Won't be easy with Indiana & Mich St playing well, but with everyone at the top playing each other, it'll be a lot of chaos. And probably a lot of tarps on the field in West Lafayette. If PU wins Friday in Michigan to get to a .684 winning pct, they may try to avoid taking the field the rest of the year and hope everyone else finishes at .667. Only half kidding.

I hope / expect Bolt and NU's AD will be in contact with the B1G office this week to gain some assurances that Purdue won't be able to pull the BS it did a couple of years ago by pretending it was going to rain and leaving the tarp on the field to avoid having to play their final game to steal the #8 seed. We better get some assurances that the B1G will be deciding -- rather than the PU coaches and officials -- whether weather stops PU from playing at any time that final weekend if the race remains tight. The chances of everything lining up so that PU could win the league by not playing on the final Sunday are small, but PU's coach is a @&*$@#$@ and will try to do it if he can get away with it. Whether the B1G cares enough about baseball to make sure that doesn't happen remains to be seen.

I remember when he was an NU commit. Can't believe he finally made it to the bigs - good for him.

Ugh - just a brutal approach at the plate today. Lazy fly balls are never the answer, but especially against a team that kicks it around as much as Minny does. Make them field it and throw it. Kind of reminded me of what that soft thrower for Maryland did to us, as it felt like we chased a lot of high stuff again. 2 runs on a Sunday is going to be an L 99.9 % of the time. Really disappointing as we've been much better at the plate of late other than against elite pitching. We didn't see that today. We had a chance to really stamp ourselves as the favorites to win the league today. Going to be a tight race to the B1G title. Probably ends our chance to host, too, save winning out plus at least getting to the final unscathed in Omaha. I assume Brockett starts Tuesday - I wonder if he has it going well again whether we get him out of there after 3 or 4 innings and he gets the ball next Sunday. Or maybe we roll the dice and just give him the ball next Sunday. I'm good with either approach at this point. Walsh certainly isn't losing Sunday games for us of late -- the offense is doing that -- but he's not giving us the best chance to win either. I liked Christo out of the pen today in a shorter burst - we probably just left him in there too long. Hopefully he can embrace that role the rest of the way.

Hopefully Brecht didn't transfer to Minnesota overnight.

Our non-con schedule just keeps looking better. We tried to schedule some good mid-major teams on the road to 'game' the RPI, but how it actually worked out was beyond what the coaches hoped would happen. (Of course, we still had to win those games, so we did our part.) Had we hung on to that 9th-inning lead vs OU on opening weekend, we'd almost certainly be on the right side of the hosting bubble right now. Probably still on the wrong side as it sits, but a 7-1 finish would make it interesting. Heading into yesterday, Boyd's World projected us as a Top 16 RPI by going 9-0 the last 9 games (now 8-0 in the last 8). http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/rpineeds.html One number that is going to hold us back is our DSR - the NCAA is putting some weight on this, but I don't know how much. We're in the mid-30s there. It tries to take margin of victory into account. https://d1baseball.com/diamond-sports-ranking/

Looks like someone is going to miss the Big East tournament - even with a decent RPI, no chance they get an at-large if they can't even make their conference tourney in that league. Too bad for the bluebirds that the NCAA tournament isn't played on weekdays only or they'd be a CWS lock. It's also too bad we can't play them in a weekend series sometime. Their win streak would end really fast.

8 seed again? Is this the right place to file my official complaint that the program is stagnating?

Very solid win again - manufactured a couple of runs early against a tough pitcher and then blew it open against the UM bullpen - went exactly according to script. Clark has been so good lately - kinda funny that we couldn't find a lefty that we trusted the first few weeks - even Worthley started slow - and all of a sudden Clark & Brockett are dealing, Walsh is back in the weekend rotation, Perry was a high leverage arm for a good chunk of the season, and Worthley has been our best reliever over the past several weeks. Got the PU loss we needed, so we're tied for first heading into tomorrow. Would be big to still be tied for first heading into the final 2 weeks because I think we're regaining the confidence we had early in the season. Nobody in the B1G wants to play us coming down the stretch as our hitters are coming around again and our pitching staff continues to perform, even if it's a few different guys than were expected. Up to #19 in RPI. Just gotta keep winning.

Big win - we just can't afford to lose Fridays, even when Sears is struggling a bit. Back to back tough outings for Worthley, but Daiss really bailed us out. Offense was very good with multiple 2-out and 2-strike hits. And for Caron to jump on the first pitch from a new reliever and just hit it back where it came from, rather than trying to do too much with it, was a brilliant approach to get us those insurance runs in the 9th. Nice to see the offense get off to a good start on the weekend. Purdue wins, but all the other contenders lose, so we're a game back and tied for 2nd. Probably need a sweep this weekend, but you can't win all 3 till you get #1. Hope Mac is sharp tomorrow and / or channels Brockett. Minny probably throwing its best starter Saturday.

Gotta imagine there is some sort of gentleman's agreement here that he plays at NU in 25-26 after spending the year rehabbing at our facilities and collecting more credit hours on our dime. However, he has all the leverage, as it probably should be for the players, so NU can't force him to return. I'll say 60/40 that he plays at NU in 25-26, but I'm constantly accused of being an optimist. Regardless, hope the surgery and rehab go great, and he's able to return to the court on schedule. Gotta admit that it'd be fun to see him in NU red in 25-26 in full health after he was playing on one-plus legs in 23-24. Also makes it official that we need one more big for 24-25 out of the portal.

No.

Unreal - congrats to 33 on a performance for the ages. I may have to rethink my top 5 pitching performance list at Haymarket Park. No question 2 of the most dominating pitching performances in the park's history, and they come in back to back games. NU's last no-hitter came out of nowhere too, as I remember. Kubat and a few others combined on one at Arkansas 10-ish years ago when Kubat was coming off injury. But for Brocket to do that against a team as good as K-State -- as little as he's pitched -- is beyond impressive. Just kinda wish we could find the middle ground on the bump. One night our guy can't get out of the first inning. The next night our guy doesn't allow a hit. There has to be a middle ground we could take advantage of. Hope the guys can ride the momentum all the way through the weekend!

I'd guess they are doing one protected opponent for the original 14 and three for the Pac-4. Looks like everyone has its "rival" on the double play, if Ohio St's rival is Maryland and Penn St's is Rutgers. Also looks like everyone has USC/UCLA paired either home or away and Ore/Wash paired either home or away. None of the original 14 hosts all 4 or visits all 4. I wonder if the B1G is going to try to schedule a single road trip for two games -- like a Thurs / Sat or Thurs / Sun when the original 14 go to LA or the Pacific NW and when those teams come east. https://bigten.org/mbb/article/blt4f64d2b4083acd4b/

Horn gets the start tonight - hopefully we could build a lead and give it to Worthley to close it out.

Well, game 3 wasn't fun, but I felt like the entire weekend was as good as we've played as a whole in a while. We swung the bats very well till we ran into Brecht. The only crooked number inning we allowed the entire weekend was in the first inning on Friday, which is extremely impressive against an Iowa team that can really hit. And our pitchers kept us in it in Game 3 when it would've been easy to be satisfied with getting the first 2 and let it get out of control. Brecht is just on another level when he's on his game. He's going to be a first-round draft pick in a couple months for a reason, although he hasn't always lived up to that arm talent in college so far. However, that's back to back completely dominant performances from him. If I'm Iowa, I'm starting him in their B1G tourney opener on Tuesday or Wednesday and hoping to get to Sunday and start him again. That's their only hope, as their bullpen is mostly garbage. I know this - nobody wants to end up on Iowa's side of the bracket and have to face him in Omaha if he's going like he was today. Had plenty of time to think about this as we were striking out and striking out and striking out (at least most of them, if not all, were swinging today) - I think what he did today was one of the top 5 pitching performances -- when you combine what the pitcher did and the overwhelming arm talent -- I've seen in our building and certainly the best one since we joined the B1G. Komine & Joba make my list, along with Street from Texas. When Scherzer was at Mizzou, he took us down on a Friday night in a fashion where we were completely helpless like what we saw today, expect that NU team was more talented on offense, so that's #1 for me. But I think I'd put what I saw today in the top 5. We just had no chance today. He was that good. Still, I'm optimistic about what I saw overall. I'm hoping it's the start of turning the corner back to more like what we did earlier in the year. Two very tough midweek games coming up and then we need to go up to Minny and dominate. Heard a bit of chatter today that Worthley may start Tuesday up in Omaha and try to give us 3 or 4 innings. We'll see.

Here we go.... big day on tap

It's too bad that we can't just count this game as an official game 8-1 final, since we got thru 5 innings, and worry about just playing the Sunday game tomorrow. It'd be a lot easier to just try to fit in 9 innings while dodging the rain than 13-ish innings. Rules don't allow that, though, when we're still within the 72-hour series window. Have to finish the 2nd game before you can start the 3rd game. One thing I'm not sure about is whether the 10-run rule may now go into effect for game 2 since we're finishing it on Sunday. It'd be nice if it did, but I don't think it does. I think the 10-run rule only is in effect for a game 3. If we do get to start game 3 Sunday, it's vital to get off to a quick start, which won't be easy against Brecht. That one could end after 5 innings if they hit the time deadline or if rain stops it and they can't restart it before the deadline. Unfortunately, that scenario would play into IU's hands, as Brecht rarely goes beyond 5-6 innings anyway.

Well, if they have to catch a plane, the deadline usually is earlier in the day, like mid-afternoon or whatever the airline schedule says it is. Since IU bussed, they don't have to leave based on an airline schedule and they can wait out the full time to finish the series, per B1G rules. I believe B1G rules give you 72 hours to finish the series from the time the other team arrives in town. So if IU got here at 7 pm Thursday, we could play till 7 pm Sunday. I'm not 100% certain if that 72-hour rule is still in effect, though, because it comes up so rarely. Almost no one busses anymore when they play us because of the long trip to Lincoln, so we're almost always working around a curfew based on plane departure times instead of the 72-hour rule.