Michigan baseball coach Rich Maloney is a little too good at foreshadowing.

“In the great game of baseball, anyone can win any game,” Maloney said before yesterday's game.

He was right.

A week after the Wolverines beat Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, Michigan suffered a disappointing 3-1 loss to the Eagles at Ray Fisher Stadium yesterday.

“I think we just assumed we were gonna win the game,” Maloney said.

Again, he was right.

Junior first baseman Mike Dufek was one of the players demonstrating that overconfidence. After Michigan beat Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne 9-2 on Sunday, Dufek was blunt about his teammates' expectations.

“We know that we are supposed to win," he said. "It’s only a matter of us focusing and playing well.”

Just two days after that blowout, Maloney sensed that overconfidence in his team. He saw an obvious lack of energy coming into yesterday's game.

“I even talked to the team before the game," Maloney said. "I said, ‘Let’s understand that anyone can knock you off.’ Maybe this will be a lesson learned for later days.”

The sluggish Wolverines fell behind in the fourth inning when Eastern Michigan sophomore Matt Skirving hit a two-run home run over the right field wall.

And in characteristic fashion, Michigan couldn't respond to an early deficit. Another run in the sixth inning extended the Eagles' lead to three.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Wolverines cut the deficit to two with senior Kevin Cislo's RBI groundout which sent catcher Tim Kalczynski home.

Michigan threatened in the eighth, advancing runners to first and second with a single and a walk, but the Eagles got out of the inning by picking Kalczynski off first base. And again, during the ninth, the Eagles picked off redshirt junior Nick Urban at first, a move that thwarted any hopes of a Michigan final-inning rally.

“We obviously killed ourselves,” Cislo said. “We had a good weekend (against IPFW), and we came in with our heads high and got knocked down right away.”

Michigan's limited offensive production didn't help its lethargic early-inning play. The Wolverines have scored one run or fewer three times this season, and all three games were losses. Despite 10 hits in yesterday's game, Michigan couldn't figure out how to move runners around the bags.

With the Wolverines opening conference play Friday at Iowa, Maloney knows his team can't keep stranding runners if it hopes to be a legitimate contender for the Big Ten Championship.

Not overlooking opponents is key, too.

“At some point, you have to have that fight inside yourself,” Maloney said. “They’ve got to make the plays, they’ve got to get the hits, and they've got to get the pitches.”