Some Assorted Notes and Big Ten Tournament Picks

Well due to the school work of me and Dave and the work/laziness of Blaine, it’s been three days since we’ve posted anything, so I thought I’d give an update of all the interesting things happening in the sports world.

World Baseball Classic
-Easily the story of the tournament so far, the Netherlands have done it again, shocking the Dominican Republic in 11 innings, 2-1. This eliminates the Dominican Republic from the tournament and ensures the Netherlands a spot in the next round. The Dominicans scored in the top of the eleventh and brought out closer Carlos Marmol to finish off the Dutch, but a botched pick-off play and error by first baseman Willy Aybar gave the Dutch the 2-1 win. Shockingly, the one-out eleventh inning single by Gene Kingsale was the first earned run the Dominicans gave up the entire tournament. Though it is great to see the Netherlands continue their Cinderella story, it will be sad to see such a great team go home after two heart-wrenching losses. The Netherlands will meet Puerto Rico tonight to determine the pool winner.
-The United States and Venezuela meet tonight to determine the winner of Pool C, after the Venezuelans put away an upstart Italian team that eliminated Canada a day earlier.
-In Pool B, Cuba has clinched a spot in the next round, and Mexico will meet Australia tonight to decide who will join them. Mexico will be out for revenge after they were shocked 17-7 by Australia in the opener on Mexican soil.
-Korea won Pool A with a 1-0 win over Japan, and both teams will look to repeat their success from the 2006 tournament.

Champions League
European Champions League soccer action continued yesterday, with Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and Villarreal moving on to the Quarterfinals after eliminating Real Madrid, Sporting Lisbon, Juventus, and Panathinaikos, respectively. Today’s action is headlined by a much-anticipated match-up between Inter Milan and Manchester United at Old Trafford in Manchester, which is currently 0-0 on aggregate. There is also Roma-Arsenal (0-1 on aggregate), FC Porto-Atlético Madrid (2-2), and Barcelona-Lyon (1-1).

Olympic Sports
-Lindsay Vonn became the first American woman to win two World Cup overall titles in skiing Wednesday with a victory in the final downhill race of the season.
-In men’s field hockey action in the Pan American Cup, Argentina defeated USA 8-0 and Canada defeated Mexico 7-3. Team USA was already guaranteed a spot in the semifinals, and will meet Chile on Saturday, with Argentina and Canada meeting up in the other semifinal.
-FINA, the governing body for international swimming, may make a decision soon on modifying the high-performance swimsuits that have been used to shatter more than 100 world records in the past year.

College Basketball
The Big East Tournament started yesterday, headlined by a shocking win by DePaul over Cincinnati. DePaul went 0-18 in conference play this year and is giving Providence a run for their money in the second round (Updates to come). St. John’s squashed all hope of a last-ditch run by Georgetown, defeating the Hoyas 64-59.
#17 Butler lost to Cleveland State in the finals of the Horizon League Tournament 57-54.

Big Ten Tournament Picks with no real explanation given

First Round
Northwestern over Minnesota
Michigan over Iowa
Penn State over Indiana

Second Round
Michigan State over Northwestern
Ohio State over Wisconsin
Illinois over Michigan
Purdue over Penn State

Semifinals
Michigan State over Ohio State
Purdue over Illinois

Finals
Purdue over Michigan State, 67-61

Interesting Baseball Fact of the Day: Pete Rose reached first base by catcher’s interference 29 times during his career, most in history and 11 more than second place Julian Javier and Dale Berra.