I was all ready to limit my coverage of baseball to "Well, that was kind of a disappointing season." But a funny thing happened on the way to the easy way out in baseball coverage: the team decided to be good. As a six-seed, they went 4-0 and became the first six-seed to win the Big Ten tournament with 4-2 win over Minnesota. Now they're on their way to the NCAA tournament, where they're a three-seed in the College Station regional. Texas A&M is the one-seed, Louisiana-Lafayette is the three (and the Buckeyes' first opponent), and something called Le Moyne is #4. They start play at 2:00 on Friday.

As for the Buckeyes' chances, I'm really not sure. Texas A&M isn't one of the top eight teams in the tournament (the so-called "national seeds" that wouldn't play each other until the College World Series), so that's a good sign. However, they are just a three-seed, and that's probably not a good sign. And even if the Buckeyes make it out of their regional, they'd likely play Rice, the #2 team in the country. But still, this is a team that just barely snuck into the Big Ten tournament, and now they're playing in the NCAA tournament. That's a pretty impressive turnaround, no matter how things play out from here on out.

So, that OSU softball team that I've been ignoring, because I find baseball (and softball) so boring? Turns out they're pretty awesome. They won the Big Ten tournament with a 2-1 victory over Northwestern. In their three games in the tournament, they outscored their opponents 32-4; in softball circles that is considered "pretty impressive," or so I've heard. OSU senior Jamee Juarez picked up Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament. Juarez played third base in the first game, against Penn State, when she drew two walks and went one for one with an RBI and a run. Against Purdue, she pitched a complete game, allowing only one run on three hits. And in the championship game, she started at third base, then pitched three no-hit innings to pick up her second win as a pitcher. So, yeah, she's good.

Next up for the Buckeyes is the NCAA tournament. They're a 2-seed, and they're playing their regional at home. The Buckeyes are 19-0 at home this season, but two of the other three teams in their bracket are Virginia Tech, against whom the Buckeyes are 1-1 this season, and Cal State Fullerton, who beat the Buckeyes 5-4 earlier this season (though that loss came on the road, in eight innings). It looks like the Buckeyes will have a pretty good chance of advancing to super regionals, though I obviously don't know enough to have an informed opinion.

The baseball team, meanwhile, split a four-game series at Minnesota over the weekend, making their record 30-19 overall and 14-12 in the Big Ten, leaving them at fifth in the conference. They'll host North Florida for a couple games this week, then head to State College for a four-game series with Penn State this weekend.