Big Ten Tournament Moves to Semifinals Friday Evening – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 11, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The quarterfinal round of the 2007 Big Ten Tournament is in the books and the semifinals are about to begin at Buckeye Field in Columbus Friday. In the first semifinal, sixth-ranked and second-seeded Northwestern meets 10th-ranked and third-seeded Michigan at 5 p.m., then at 7:30 p.m. Big Ten champion and No. 25 Ohio State takes on fifth-seeded Purdue.
In the fourth and final quarterfinal Friday afternoon, Purdue (33-31-1) knocked off fourth-seeded Iowa (37-21) for the Boilermakers first-ever win in the Big Ten tournament (1-5). During the regular season, Purdue dropped two games at Ohio State, falling 7-5 April 27 in a game the Boilermakers led, 5-0, before falling in the series finale, 8-0, April 28.
Earlier Friday, Michigan (43-10) defeated Illinois (31-24), 4-0. In two quarterfinal games Thursday night, Northwestern (44-10) topped Michigan State (32-26), 4-0, while the Buckeyes (36-16) defeated Penn State (26-23), 10-2.
Ohio State is making its third appearance in the semifinals since the conference tournament went to its current eight-team, single elimination format in 2004. Northwestern and Michigan have also been to the semifinals three of the four years.
### GO BUCKS! ###
