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Game Thread: Rutgers Baseball Advanced to Championship Game at 6 p.m. ET Sunday on BTN!

This was always the question for us in 2022. We lack several stud pitchers . Shore up that pitching and we will be there every season. NJ has great high school baseball . My youngest son now age 46 was hitting 85-86 mph at 15 then a freshman in high school. At 16 he consistently was throwing 88-89 and left handed to boot.
 
Did not want to play Michigan. They must have averaged 10 runs a game in the 4 games we played.
 
In 4 games, Michigan scored, 9, 9, 12 , and 10 runs against us.Our league leading ERA was meaningless when it counted. Look, things don't alwys go as expected in tournaments. Just ask Maryland. They had the league's best starting pitching and could win only one game. RU really had everything going for it and expectations were justifiably high that they could win this thing. Our road to the title went through Purdue, Penn State and Indiana .But, we remain Rutgers. No further explanation needed.
 
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An outcome that was obvious as soon as you had to only lose once to lose the championship. Big Ten athletic leadership is garbage. They don’t care we were screwed because they don’t want us here to begin with.
 
An outcome that was obvious as soon as you had to only lose once to lose the championship. Big Ten athletic leadership is garbage. They don’t care we were screwed because they don’t want us here to begin with.
Yikes, stop it. That format is universal, not some anti- Rutgers conspiracy. The platers and coaches knew the format going in, except seemingly most Rutgers fans.
Earlier today Tennessee ,which had not lost in its tournament, played Florida, which had one loss, in a winner take all single title game. Tennessee took care of business and won the title. Rutgers didn’t. Don’t blame the format. Tonight unbeaten Stanford plays one loss Oregon State In the PAC 12 tournament. Let’s see if the Beavers can do what Michigan did.
 
Michigan if I’m correct was one of 4-5 teams expected to win the B1G in 2022. We have had a great season thus far and more to come. Owens is a great coach who has put together an excellent staff and by using the portal rebuilt this program in three years. We are no longer a patsy in the conference. If we get the pitching we will be a tough out for even the best of the best.
 
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Anyone else super bummed about this game.
I feel like I did the day the Giants got beat by the Packers 37-0 in the 1961 NFL championship game. High expectations; poor performance. All the ducks were lined up in a row. We had an easy route to the finals, got unexpectedly good starting pitching in first 3 games, had proper rest, had good mojo after routing Indiana and then… clunk. bummed is a good word.
 
Yikes, stop it. That format is universal, not some anti- Rutgers conspiracy. The platers and coaches knew the format going in, except seemingly most Rutgers fans.
Earlier today Tennessee ,which had not lost in its tournament, played Florida, which had one loss, in a winner take all single title game. Tennessee took care of business and won the title. Rutgers didn’t. Don’t blame the format. Tonight unbeaten Stanford plays one loss Oregon State In the PAC 12 tournament. Let’s see if the Beavers can do what Michigan did.
I have no use for you. The most miserable poster on here. Always looking for reasons to be anti-Rutgers.
 
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I feel like I did the day the Giants got beat by the Packers 37-0 in the 1961 NFL championship game. High expectations; poor performance. All the ducks were lined up in a row. We had an easy route to the finals, got unexpectedly good starting pitching in first 3 games, had proper rest, had good mojo after routing Indiana and then… clunk. bummed is a good word.

Eh wouldn't say we had "proper" rest. We finished a game at 4 in the morning ET.
 
When Football and Basketball seasons ended, I said to myself it’s a long time to September. But I and most of us have been entertained, excited, upset, but proud of the women’s and men’s lax, soccer, and baseball teams plus track and field, rowing and more. In forty years, I can say this has been the best all around athletic’s experience we had in the best, toughest conference we ever been in. And I believe the future will be even better. Thanks to all the teams and coaches we making us proud of you and RU.
 
Yikes, stop it. That format is universal, not some anti- Rutgers conspiracy. The platers and coaches knew the format going in, except seemingly most Rutgers fans.
Earlier today Tennessee ,which had not lost in its tournament, played Florida, which had one loss, in a winner take all single title game. Tennessee took care of business and won the title. Rutgers didn’t. Don’t blame the format. Tonight unbeaten Stanford plays one loss Oregon State In the PAC 12 tournament. Let’s see if the Beavers can do what Michigan did.
Not universal.



 
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Carino belongs on this board . What a whiner.

I sit corrected. Big East does it differently. But Stanford and Tennessee managed to survive single elimination final format. I agree that flipping brackets makes little sense. But everybody knew and should have understood the format going in and what the risks were. But it makes good cover for RU’s failure. Michigan had a far tougher route to get to the finals. They had to beat Illinois, Maryland and Iowa, and then Rutgers. If I remember correctly each of those teams was seeded higher than them.

There was a lot not to like about the tournament. Attendance was dreadful; game start and finish times in many cases were awful. The rain washout didn’t help, nor did the far western location of the venue. But it’s been at Omaha for a while now and playing at the site of the CWS has some neutral site appeal. Having the top two seeded teams coming from the east coast did not suit Omaha.

The fact that Michigan beat Rutgers 3 out of 4 suggests superiority but I’m sure Rutgers would have loved to get another crack at them . On paper RU would have had the edge, but they don’t play on paper.
 
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Anyone else super bummed about this game.
Yes… was hoping for more.
However our pitching has been a problem all season. Over the last 13 games of the regular season the RU Pitching staff had an era of 8.00. That won’t win you any Conference titles. Hopefully we can win a game or two early in the NCAA’s. After that forget it. Coach needs to find some Pitchers.
 
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My opinion of the Big Ten Tournament:

The Big Ten should have started the tournament a day earlier because of potential rain delays/cancellation, and late games starting after midnight due to delays/extra-inning games.

Why should a team in the winner's bracket play the late game (see 12 midnight start)?

The whole idea of a winner's bracket and loser's bracket is to make it harder for a one loss team to win over an undefeated team in the final.

Lastly, by starting a day early you can play a true double elimination.
An extra game would bring in additional TV revenue.
 
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Interestingly for me this baseball tournament – and I preface this stating I am not a baseball fan at all pro or College - really made me think the players were being taken advantage of.

Don’t know if the MLBPA would have let games start at 2am. I know baseball is a different beast because the game shuts down at the slightest drizzle - but this was ridiculous and unnecessary.

The athletic directors should be the primary advocates for their players and need to ensure this doesn’t happen again Either by adjusting the schedule or having an alternate format they can implement As a result of such weather events.
 
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NCAA Baseball Tournament selection show on ESPN today at noon. One source has RU as 3 seed in North Carolina . Glad our guys will get to play some more games.
 
Kudos to Brito and Florence for making All- Tournament team. Not surprisingly, Michigan players dominated the selections.
 
Yes… was hoping for more.
However our pitching has been a problem all season. Over the last 13 games of the regular season the RU Pitching staff had an era of 8.00. That won’t win you any Conference titles. Hopefully we can win a game or two early in the NCAA’s. After that forget it. Coach needs to find some Pitchers.
Yet, but for the final game, RU pitching in the tournament wasn’t all that bad. Florence and Fitz threw absolute gems. Kollar struggled and Gorski and the bullpen came up short in two of the games. I do agree that upgrades are needed on the mound.
 
When Football and Basketball seasons ended, I said to myself it’s a long time to September. But I and most of us have been entertained, excited, upset, but proud of the women’s and men’s lax, soccer, and baseball teams plus track and field, rowing and more. In forty years, I can say this has been the best all around athletic’s experience we had in the best, toughest conference we ever been in. And I believe the future will be even better. Thanks to all the teams and coaches we making us proud of you and RU.
ditto!
 
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But they could have at least beat Maryland once or twice that second to last weekend.
I agree but they defeated Rutgers twice on the last weekend to get a six seed in the tournament.Their starting pitching is mediocre just like Rutgers but they find a way to score runs with walks ,stolen bases , sacrifice bunts and clutch hits.
 
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RU did what most of us didn’t expect this year. They challenged and was one game short in conference and tourney.

Just annoyed it was Michigan. If RU was to lose, would have preferred Iowa.

Anyway, let’s see where they land in the NCAAs and see if they can win 1-2 games to get that additional momentum for next year.
 
Wow … Baseball America predicted RU to be in the University of No Classes bracket as one of the last 4 in.
 
At least we're playing in meaningful games. Get some solid pitching transfers and this team could be conference favorite.
For sure the trends are all positive. Step one was starting to play more meaningful games, which is now becoming more norm. Step two will be closing on those.
 
Yes… was hoping for more.
However our pitching has been a problem all season. Over the last 13 games of the regular season the RU Pitching staff had an era of 8.00. That won’t win you any Conference titles. Hopefully we can win a game or two early in the NCAA’s. After that forget it. Coach needs to find some Pitchers.
You do realize that Rutgers had the second lowest ERA in the B1G?
You also realize that Michigan was on a mad tear scoring runs in the last part of the season, especially in the tournament? They scored 15 on Maryland and 13 on Iowa. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to a team that is surging offensively.
 
Our pitching was not good and the test was playing teams who could hit as well.
 
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