Baseball Tournament Update: Day 2

Photo by Mark Kuhlmann


OMAHA, Neb. — The Big Ten Baseball Tournament Presented by IFS.ai completed first round games on Wednesday and sent home its first team as double-elimination contests began.

The day began with No. 8 seed Penn State defeating top-seed Illinois, 8-4, in a game originally scheduled for Tuesday.

J.T. Marr collected three hits as Penn State (27-23) scored three runs in the eighth inning to pull away. Colton Milton went 3-for-4 for the Fighting Illini (33-18), who used five pitchers.

In the day's second game, No. 4 seed Michigan edged No. 5 seed Iowa, 3-2, on a walk-off walk in the 10th.

Jonathan Kim touched home as Mitch Voit drew the third-straight walk of the inning. In a pitchers' duel, Iowa's Brody Brecht tossed a four-hitter over 7.1 innings, striking out 10 while Michigan's Kurt Barr allowed two runs over 6.1 innings of work.

In Wednesday's nightcap, Nebraska used a four-run burst in the second to defeat Purdue, 6-2, as the Boilermakers were eliminated from the tournament.

Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Brett Sears struck out nine batters over six innings, allowing just two hits to improve to 9-0 on the season. Drew Christo closed out the last three innings, giving up zero hits.

Purdue's Luke Gaffney, Big Ten Freshman of the Year, slugged his 13th homer of the year, breaking the school's freshman record.

Thursday's schedule features three games. Illinois takes on Iowa in a 10 a.m. CT elimination game while Indiana and Ohio State clash at 2 p.m. followed by Michigan and Penn State at 6 p.m.