B1G Baseball Tournament Recap & NCAA Selection Show

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and if you were in town for the games hope you stayed dry and enjoyed some great baseball. This tournament had everything from big plays, mistakes, offense, defense, drama and overall a great atmosphere for baseball. Ohio State took a longer route to the finals than they probably wanted but in the end they took home the title. Here is how things played over the course of the week:

Day 1

This was essentially upset city to start things off since every lower seed took a game from a higher seed outside of the final game of the night when aOSU (#4) held serve against Michigan (#5). Maryland (#6) would get things started when Mike Shawaryn set a conference tournament record and struck out 16 batters in their win over Indiana (#3). MSU (#7) followed that up an upset over the hometown team Nebraska (#2). Not to be outdone Iowa (#8) pulled the biggest upset in downing Minnesota (#1).

Day 2

Only two games were played on Thursday but they ended up drastically changing the composition of the tournament. Indiana (#3) took out Nebraska (#2) and Michigan (#5) beat Minnesota (#1) and just like that both #1 and #2 seeds were out of the tournament. The rest of the scheduled games would be pushed back to Day 3 due to weather.

Day 3

MSU (#7) would resume action early in the morning by squeaking by Maryland (#6). Then Iowa (#8), being down 4-0 in the bottom of the 9th, would tie it up 4-4 in regulation then get the walk off hit in the bottom of the 10th to steal a 5-4 victory from aOSU (#4). In the first elimination game of the day Maryland (#6) powered past Indiana (#3) to send the Hoosiers home. Later aOSU (#4) would use a 5 run first inning to be up 5-2 on Michigan (#5) but in the 2nd inning the game was postponed due to weather.

Day 4

In the early game Iowa (#8) dominated Maryland (#6) to send the Terps packing while aOSU (#4) continued to increase their lead from the previous night against Michigan (#5) and ended up beating the Wolverines for the 5th time this year eliminating them from the tournament. aOSU (#4) would have a quick turnaround in facing off with MSU (#7) but after a Ronnie Dawson HR in the 10th the Buckeyes got the opportunity to play MSU (#7) again.

Day 5

Since this was a double elimination tournament aOSU (#4) needed to beat MSU (#7) twice so both teams faced off early on Sunday where the Buckeyes ended up winning to advance to the finals. Iowa (#8) and aOSU (#4) would have a back and forth affair in the final with the Buckeyes prevailing after scoring a run in the top of the 9th to break a tie and win their first B1G baseball tournament title since 2007.

2016 Big Ten Baseball All-Tournament Team

Most Outstanding Player - Ronnie Dawson, Ohio State
Ronnie Dawson was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after breaking Big Ten Tournament records in most hits (15) and most doubles (6) in a Big Ten Tournament.

All-Tournament Team
P - Nick Gallagher, Iowa
P - Brian Shaffer, Maryland
P - Mike Shawaryn, Maryland
C - Jalen Washington, Ohio State
1B - Tyler Peyton, Iowa
2B - Troy Kuhn, Ohio State
3B - Mason McCoy, Iowa
SS - Craig Nennig, Ohio State
OF - Joel Booker, Iowa
OF - Ronnie Dawson, Ohio State
OF - Troy Montgomery, Ohio State
DH - Austin Guzzo, Iowa

B1G NCAA Tournament Selections

With the B1G tournament finished all eyes moved to the NCAA college baseball selection committee in which the field of 64 would be announced. Ohio State would obviously be in due to the auto-bid but other B1G teams waited to see if their name was called as well. Here are the other B1G teams that will be joining the Buckeyes representing the B1G in the NCAA tournament:

Louisville regional - Louisville Cardinals #2 overall seed

June 3rd
#1 Louisville vs. #4 Western Michigan 6pm ESPN3
#2 Ohio State vs. #3 Wright State 2pm ESPN3

Clemson regional - Clemson Tigers #7 overall seed

June 3rd
#1 Clemson vs. #4 Western Carolina 7pm ESPN3
#2 Oklahoma State vs. #3 Nebraska 12pm ESPNU

College Station regional - Texas A&M Aggies #4 overall seed

June 3rd
#1 Texas A&M vs. #4 Binghampton 9pm ESPN3
#2 Minnesota vs. #3 Wake Forest 4pm ESPN3

Missed out

Michigan was left out and probably has a decent gripe although their finish in the conference (5th) and losing that last series with Illinois may have did them in.

We will have a full breakdown of the NCAA tournament later on this week.

All tournament team and regional info courtesy of bigten.org & ncaa.com