Kent State Beats Up Boilers in Gary

Purdue wasn't done beating Valpo until Saturday morning...and they looked fatigued tonight v. Kent State.

Valpo had a pretty lousy night last night- lots of fielding and throwing errors on routine plays...and Purdue took advantage of it. Tonight, Purdue made a couple critical errors, mostly in the second inning, and Kent State made them pay to the tune of a 7-3 loss.

They didn't hit well, didn't field well and didn't pitch well...other than that, the game was great for a Boiler squad that spent much of the second half of the season ranked in the teens.

Now, their work becomes extremely difficult. First, they'll play Kentucky at 4:00 pm tomorrow...If they win, they get to play Kent State at 8:00 pm.  IF they win that game, they'll play Kent State Monday at 8:00. One would think KSU's rotation would be pretty wrecked following a 21 inning game...but, having a pitcher earn the complete game win helps settle everything down.

Perhaps with a full night's sleep, the Boilers can play like they're capable of playing...but winning three-straight in two days, versus this level of competition is a lot to ask from any team.

Grab Your Balls, Boiler Fans

I'm talking Boiler baseball, of course.

Your Purdue Boilermakers -- outright Big Ten champs -- are now in the throes of the Big Ten baseball tournament as the #1 seed. They defeated Ohio State yesterday 5-4 with some late inning heroics by Big Ten Player of the Year Kevin Plawecki, the Boilers heart-and-soul catcher and with the save locked down by their Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Joe Haase.

The BT baseball tourney is double-elimination (bracket is here) and the top seed gives you a deserved reward in the sense that a bye past the first day, followed by two victories puts you in the tourney championship game.

Of course, because this is how life works out, our Boilers play #2-seed IU tonight to go straight to the championship game. The loser of this one goes to a game which becomes a must-win (obviously, with double-elim and all) and, if won, routes them right back to the championship game. So it's quite possible the Boilers and Hoosiers will be meeting again this weekend.

Tonight's game against IU is at 7 PM and is scheduled to be broadcast -- along with all Big Ten tourney games -- on BTN. Unless, you know, a transmitter in the BTN truck gets ice cream spilled on it or something.

The train is a-coming. Plenty o' seats on the bandwagon. Go Boilers.

College Baseball Frivolity

In case you haven't seen this, check it out.



All this tells me is that neither team practices...baseball, anyway. This might be the most entertained I've been by baseball players in a decade. Thoughts?

But What About Academics?

Well, the NCAA college world series is wrapping up this week, with a best-of-three series being played Mon-Weds of this week between Fresno State and Georgia. And, once again, we have another example of not caring about the student-athletes! Baseball is as bad as basketball, hockey, soccer, field hockey, fencing, skeet shooting... and anything else that has a playoff. Don't you people understand?? Only football has it right! The fairness of a voting system. The essence of competition between the best teams, as determined by a computer algorithm.

Here we go again, NCAA. You have teams playing in tournaments. What are you thinking? All that travel! How will these young, impressionable -- not to mention, delicate -- youngsters handle such rigors? Why, flying on airplanes... what is this? The future?

The NCAA baseball tourney kicked off almost a month ago. There were "Super Regionals" held in Athens, GA; Baton Rouge, LA; Cary, NC; Coral Gables, FL; Fullerton, CA; Houston, TX; Tallahassee, FL; and Tempe, AZ. The Regionals before them actually included all those plus Ann Arbor, MI; Conway, SC; College Station, TX; Lincoln, NE; Long Beach, CA; Raleigh, NC; Stanford, CA; and Stillwater, OK.

It's madness, I tell you, MADNESS!!!

When will they have time to study? Couldn't this have overlapped with academic finals? See, college football is sensitive to such things by not having a playoff of any sort. Even though such a playoff would be held during 99% of schools' winter breaks.

Next thing you crazy-ass fans will want a tournament for football with 64 teams in it! Then where will the madness end?

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In the end, folks, we all know why football doesn't have something that every single pro and college sport -- besides D-I football -- has. And that reason is.....