Hey folks,
First things first, we will have lineups and the live blog active again tonight for your enjoyment and participation.
Now, looking to tonight...
There are two possible paths the Hoosiers could take over the next 2-3 days. They are as follows:
1) Win tonight, and qualify for the championship on Saturday, to be played against the winner of a match-up between the winner of the team IU beats tonight and the winner of today's Minnesota-Purdue game. That game would be played Saturday, before the championship game.
2) Lose tonight, fall into the last round of the loser's bracket and play the winner of today's match-up between Purdue and Minnesota. Again, that game would be played Saturday morning, giving the Hoosiers little rest time should they win and advance to the championship game Saturday night.
Which brings us to the next step in this equation, who IU plays tonight. That would be Ohio State, which rallied to beat Illinois last night.
Much like last year (or any year in a conference tournament), the Hoosiers are going to need a pitcher outside of Eric Arnett and Matt Bashore to step up. You'll remember that last year, Matt Carr had a stellar outing from the bullpen to help the Hoosiers past Ohio State, and Tyler Tufts' complete game against Illinois helped save the bullpen for what turned into a slugfest against Penn State.
So far, the Hoosiers have only had to go to their bullpen for four total innings in the Big Ten Tournament. Getting six or seven solid innings from Monar -- and/or a win -- would go a long, long, long way toward putting them in the driver's seat for the tournament.
Tracy Smith was right last night when he said there's a lot of baseball left to be played, but the Hoosiers have gotten themselves in an enviable position after two games. What transpires next is just as much under their control as anyone else's. To torture the cliche, it's a round ball and a round bat, and you've got to hit it square.
See you tonight.
