B1G 2019: A Weekly Breakdown
What an exciting opening weekend of Big Ten play that provided some crazy games, unforeseen results, and a lot of interesting story lines to follow through this conference race. The biggest surprise of the weekend had to be Ohio State sweeping No. 20 Indiana while Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern all took care of business in their respective matchups. Let’s break down some of the past weekend’s series and the key matchups to keep an eye on this coming weekend.
Background: Michael Kyllo-Kittleson is an alumna of the University of Minnesota and was apart of the Gopher Softball program for eight season both as a student-manager and the program’s Director of Operations. Because of this background, Kyllo-Kittleson has a deep knowledge and love for the Big Ten Conference and will be delving into the 2019 Big Ten season weekly here on FPN. These breakdowns will be both statistically driven but also include predictions and other opinions on the weekend’s events.
No. 20 Indiana at Ohio State
In probably the most shocking outcome this weekend in the Big Ten, Ohio State swept No. 20 Indiana in three close matchups. For Ohio State, Lilli Piper, Emily Clark, Kallie Boren, Ashley Prange were solid all contributing to the offensive attack. In the circle, Lauren Rice picked up two wins while Morgan Ray picked up the complete game victory in game three. Ray has been successful enough this season for the Buckeye with a 1.67 ERA through 84 innings while Rice has been good but a bit hit or miss posting a 1.97 ERA over 53.1 innings. If Rice can continue to roll this could be a game changer for the Buckeyes and can evaluate them back into the conference race conversation.
For Indiana, Goodin and Trainer took the losses in the circle. For Goodin, it was her first and second on the season. Errors (4) played a huge role in the Hoosiers struggles as only five of the Buckeyes’ 14 runs were earned. Maddie Westmoreland, Annika Baez, Bella Norton, and Katie Lacefield did all they could at the plate to help push Indiana over the hump but it wasn’t enough.
Moving forward, the results of this series have made the conference race (and spot in the NCAA Tournament) as a whole extremely interesting. Ohio State has a bit of an easier road as they host Michigan while Indiana travels to Ann Arbor while also crossing over to play a very strong Wisconsin team in Madison. Ohio State will have to take on arguably the strongest offensive team top to bottom in the Big Ten in Illinois. While that game isn’t a cake walk, both the Illini and Buckeye pitching staffs matchup pretty well against each other so I would expect to see a high fly, scoring affair.
Iowa at Purdue
Two pretty evenly matched programs, Purdue came away with the 2-1 series victory by very close margins (game one: 3-2 Purdue, game two: Iowa 2-1, game three: Purdue 4-2). Mallory Kilian, Abby Lien, and DoniRae lead the way for the Hawks while the Boilermakers enjoyed production from Jenny Behan, Lexi Huffman, and Kasey Wilhoit. On both sides the offenses struggled to take advantage of pushing across runners in scoring position and that will be something that has to improve through the continuation of Big Ten play.
The biggest story line is Allison Doocy, the standout Iowa ace and workhorse. She threw 15.1 innings this past weekend and was chased in game three after only 2.1 innings of work. Someone is going to have to step up for Iowa to win during conference play. Not only does Doocy need a break or there is the real potential for her to burn out early, it makes that rubber match very hard for Iowa to win. For an opponent to see a pitcher three straight days in a row does not necessarily bode well for the Hawkeyes chances to secure a victory come Sunday. Definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
No. 16 Minnesota at Maryland
Minnesota took care of business and swept Maryland as expected however it didn’t come without some craziness and heroics. In game one, Minnesota was down into the sixth inning when senior Maddie Houlihan blasted a grand slam to put the Gophers ahead. Houlihan has started a bit slower than normal this season so it was good to see her break through versus Maryland. Her performance moving through conference will be crucial to Minnesota’s chance to reclaim the regular season and tournament titles.
After the scare in game one, Minnesota settled in and handily claimed the next two games. Game two got ugly when Maryland issued 14 free passes and Minnesota exploded to collect 19 runs on 15 hits. Hope Brandner, Natalie DenHartog, and MaKenna Partain were all great at the plate. Most impressively DenHartog, a freshman, went 3-for-4 with a walk and six RBIs. She also hit a double and a grand slam; not a bad day at the plate!
However, not all is lost for the Terps and a lot of “kuddos” are due to the much improved Maryland offense. Maryland put up 13 runs of their own against a good Minnesota pitching staff who holds a collective ERA of 1.88 (between all five arms, including possible All-American Amber Fiser). In two games they put up six earned runs against Fiser who has only allowed now 25 earned runs in 116.1 innings of work. That is a positive Maryland needs to hold onto and build from.
Nebraska at Michigan
The Cornhuskers and Wolverines squared off for the first time during conference play in three seasons and as was expected, Michigan swept the series. Meghan Beaubien and Alex Storako teamed up for the victories with Beaubien throwing to complete games and coming in for the save during Sunday’s contests. In 13.2 innings of work she allowed no earned runs while striking out 18. Per the story line of this season, Michigan will more often than not go the way Beaubien goes.
Natalie Peters, Lexie Blair, Mackenzie Nemitz, and Madison Uden were steady at the plate for the Wolverines as they been thus far and will need to continue being.
All and all it wasn’t a great weekend for Nebraska who struggled to put runners on base. A small silver lining in game three were Alyvia Simmons and Samantha Owen who were able to connect and even drive in a few runs. For Nebraska, their schedule doesn’t get any easier anytime soon with the next two weekend series against Illinois and Northwestern. The positive given the youth of this Huskers’ team is they will rack up that experience against the conference’s top teams and be able to learn “by fire”. Hopefully they can make adjustments and piece it all together because there is talent on that roster.
No. 13 Wisconsin at Illinois
In another crazy weekend series that concluded in a way that may have surprised many, Illinois won the series two games to one. Not only that, the Illini’s pitching staff really stepped up to keep the powerful Wisconsin bats at bay; as a team they are collectively hitting .306.
This is a huge positive for Illinois to build on moving through the rest of conference play. While heir apparent ace, Sydney Sickels, didn’t throw well in game one the Illini were able to get strong performances from their bullpen (especially from Taylor Edwards) to bounce back and claim games two and three. If the bullpen can sustain that, coupled with Illinois’ bats? Watch out.
For Wisconsin, despite picking up the loss in game two, Haley Hestekin pitched very well which will be a positive for her to build on. The offensive was obviously strong in game one than kind of tampered off the rest of the weekend. Outside of that, Wisconsin failed to put all the pieces together to finish out the other two matchups. Errors and walks were a problem (something that has been a strength so far this season) the Badgers will have to get buttoned up quickly – if they can pull all the pieces together again and stay consistent they’re a front runner for a top four spot in the conference.
BTN WEEKLY AWARDS
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Maddie Houlihan
Minnesota
PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Meghan Beaubien
Michigan
FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Danielle Williams
Northwestern
KEY WEEKEND MATCHUPS
Michigan State at Indiana
Indiana has to get back on track this weekend versus Michigan State who they host in Bloomington, IN. If not, they could very much already be out of the race of the regular season conference title. While Michigan State will put up a fight and has some dangerous hitters this is a good matchup for Indiana to get back to playing strong ball. Michigan State is 11-18 on the season and 1-2 in the Big Ten after taking on Penn State last weekend. But watch out, again, they have five hitters over .300, their weaker spot is in the circle.
Ohio State at Maryland
After Ohio State came out and made a statement last weekend, they have to continue to play well and pull down victories to keep their standing in the conference on the rise. Maryland is much improved offensively and Ohio State’s pitching has been hit or miss. Don’t be surprised if this series turns into a slug fest: home field, “last-ups” could be a huge factor in the outcome of this series.
Northwestern at Iowa
One of these games could be a “trap game” for Northwestern if they don’t show up ready to play each and every game. Allison Doocy is good and has what it takes to single handily play spoiler. And if her defense plays a clean game behind her? It can get tight very quickly.
Northwestern should sweep the series but they do absolutely need to focus from start to finish.
PREDICTED END OF YEAR BIG TEN AWARDS
Just for fun, here are our prediction for how the Big Ten season awards would shake out if it all ended today! Note: these are based of Big Ten conference play stats as they are from week to week.
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Meghan Beaubien, Michigan
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Maddie Houlihan, Minnesota
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Danielle Williams
