Baseball Tournament: Day 3 Update

Photo by Mark Kuhlmann

OMAHA, Neb. — Four games were on the bill Thursday at the Big Ten Baseball Tournament Presented by IFS.ai. At the end of the night, two teams earned spots in Saturday's semifinals.

In the opener, No. 2 seed UCLA defeated No. 7 seed Michigan, 7-5. The Bruins (41-15) scored three runs in the bottom eighth to secure the win and finish 2-0 in pool play. Big Ten Player of the Year Roch Cholowsky blasted his 22nd home run of the season while for Michigan (33-23), Greg Pace Jr. connected on a 443-foot home run to deep center.

In game two, No. 9 Penn State bookend runs to triumph over No. 4 seed USC, 2-1. The Nittany Lions (33-22) scored in the first inning then pushed across the winning run in the ninth on Nate Voss's two-out, solo shot to left field. Starter Caden Aoki struck out seven over seven innings for USC (34-21). The win gave Penn State a 2-0 record in pool play and a spot in the semifinals.

No. 1 seed Oregon made its Big Ten Tournament debut with a 4-2 win over Michigan State. The second-ranked Ducks (42-13) ran their win streak to 11 games behind the arm of pitcher Ian Umlandt, who allowed four hits over 6.2 innings. Anson Aroz turned in three hits and 3 RBI. The Spartans closed their season with a 28-27 mark. The game was the ninth-straight of the tournament decided by three-runs or less.

The night ended with Indiana shutting out Iowa, 5-0, in a game that ended just after midnight local time. Starter Cole Gilley threw six innings of four-hit ball while offensively, Deven Taylor had a big night with three hits (including his 18th homer of the season) and 4 RBI. Iowa dropped to 33-21-1 on the season and Indiana improved to 32-24.

Friday's schedule features USC versus Washington at 9 a.m. CT, followed by Oregon-Nebraska at 6 p.m. with a semifinal berth on the line.