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Big Ten Baseball Final Release
July 17, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format Ohio State emerged as the Big Ten Champion in a conference race that was decided on the final day of competition. The Buckeyes swept Iowa on the final weekend of play to conclude the Big Ten slate with an 18-6 record. Minnesota finished just a half-game back at 17-6, while Indiana was just 1.5 games out of the top spot (16-7) and Illinois ended two games back (16-8). Ohio State earned the top seed in the conference's first neutral-site baseball tournament since 1994, which was played at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio, the home of the Triple-A Columbus Clippers. The conference championship was the 15th overall in Buckeye program history and the team's first since 2001. The four-day tournament welcomed 12,219 fans, marking the conference's highest tournament attendance in at least the past decade. The 2009 tournament's single-game high of 4,575 also marked the highest for the conference in that span. Indiana took control in the 2009 Big Ten Baseball Tournament, sweeping through the bracket as the No. 3 seed to earn the team's second tournament crown and first since 1996. The tournament win also gave the Hoosiers the team's second-ever trip to the NCAA Championship, the first of which came during the 1996 campaign. Indiana, Ohio State and Minnesota all advanced to NCAA Regionals, marking the second time in the last three years that three conference squads earned postseason berths and the sixth time in the last decade that multiple Big Ten teams made the field.
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