Big Ten ready to weather a rainy forecast

Big Ten ready to weather a rainy forecast Delays, postponements and ham fisted makeup games are part of life in this ugly weather conference, especially as the conference continues to grow and travel becomes less convenient. So should rainy weather require an update to today's schedule, the eight teams set to begin postseason play will lean on prior experience. "You can't control the weather," Minnesota coach John Anderson said. "That's something we can't control. So you http://littlepoppitt.com/mains.php?buy-729.html just have to deal with it and get your kids prepared to play when mulberry bags house of fraser they say play ball. We just try to control bayswater mulberry the things that we can control. That's ourselves and being cheap mulberry bags uk ready to play." The rain forecasted for the tournament's opening day is a reminder of how weather, travel logistics and other factors have caused problems to the conference's baseball division at large since it added Maryland and mulberry changing bag Rutgers in 2014. Bank Stadium, this season. Now, http://www.vital-soft.co.uk as the Big mulberry continental wallet Ten has stretched itself as far West as Nebraska and as far East as coastal states like Maryland and New Jersey, the combination of weather and travel can make for much bigger scheduling headaches. Minnesota originally had to cancel an April home series with Rutgers when mulberry bag outlet an East Coast snowstorm led to widespread flight cancellations and made commercial travel to the Midwest impossible http://www.farmrides.com/contact2.cfm for the Scarlet Knights. The Gophers were able to make up only two of http://littlepoppitt.com/mains.php?buy-1014.html the three originally scheduled games with a doubleheader in Minneapolis on May 16, squeezing the Rutgers games in between series losses at home against Long Beach State and Purdue. A jumbled schedule helped Minnesota in 2016, when the Gophers played one fewer game and their 16 7 conference record beat Nebraska's 16 8 mark for the regular season title. This year, Nebraska won the league with a 16 7 1 Big Ten record, while Minnesota finished third at 15 8. Michigan was second at 16 8. Ideally, Anderson says, conference teams and officials can find ways to get the full slate of games played even as the Big Ten's footprint expands. "It's our league and who we are," Anderson said. "I think as a coaching group and as a conference, we need to try and keep finding ways to try and play as many games as possible in this league and overcome some of those challenges." The challenge of a rainy forecast Wednesday may be only a minor inconvenience, especially compared with some of Minnesota's weather headaches this year. Rain or not, the Big Ten teams will be ready when called. "We're fighting black mulberry handbag for our lives," Northwestern coach Spencer Allen said. "I don't think it'll have a huge effect. Whenever they say play ball, our guys are going to be ready. All of us, we've dealt with this throughout the year." Michigan gets postseason boost For nearly a month, No. 2 Michigan was left to play without one of the league's top players. But second baseman Ako Thomas is back in time for this week's Big Ten Tournament. Thomas, an All Big Ten First Team honoree, broke his hamate bone in his first at bat against Indiana on April 21 in Ann Arbor, leaving him sidelined for three weeks. He's healthy now, and enters the postseason as the http://littlepoppitt.com/mains.php?buy-1669.html conference leader in batting average (.363) and on base percentage (.475). "He's a dynamic player, who changes the game for us offensively and defensively," Michigan coach Erik Bakich said. "But I felt we've held it together fairly well since. He's going to return to action this week, so it'll be good to see him back out there." Mark Wasikowski didn't see many Major League Baseball scouts at Purdue games this season. Maybe only a handful of them, the first year Boilermakers coach believes. "We were picked to finish last," Wasikowski said. They were right, when you talk to the scouts in terms of the amount of talent that we have on the baseball field when it comes to professional people." But that lack of high end professional talent didn't stop Purdue from a significant turnaround in Wasikowski's first year guiding the program. The Boilers are back in the tournament for the first time since 2012, http://littlepoppitt.com/mains.php?buy-4453.html going from two conference wins in 2016 to 12 Big Ten victories this season, as well as the No. 8 seed http://www.fellowesproductions.com/mains.php?buy-3177.html in this year's tournament. "Our kids had some resiliency and they had a pretty bitter taste in their mouth after what they had gone through in their careers," Wasikowski said. "Whether it mulberry bag sale was the new kids that were coming in (from) the recruiting process that had http://www.klymburn.co.uk/mains.php?buy-588.html heard nothing mulberry changing bag but negative things about Purdue baseball from the recent past, or the guys that returned to the program, so to speak, that had a bad taste in their mouth, I think those guys really wanted to change that." Sam Travis became the 28th cheap mulberry bags uk former Hoosier to begin a Major League Baseball career on Tuesday when the Boston Red Sox purchased his contract from Triple A affiliate Pawtucket.