The only unpredictable aspect of yesterday's game was the weather.

Following an 80-degree, sunny start, a quick-hitting thunderstorm cut Michigan's first mid-week home game short after seven innings.

But the Wolverines' consistent hitting sealed a runaway win over Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, 10-2, continuing an offensive trend at The Fish that began with last weekend's series sweep against Oakland.

The win over the Mastodons (4-19) was Michigan's final nonconference game before the beginning of Big Ten play this weekend.

"We should be taking care of business," first baseman Nate Recknagel said. "We should be beating teams like this during the mid-week, and it becomes very important in the long run, especially for getting an NCAA at-large bid. Today we came out and we wanted to have swagger and show them that we are the best team in the North."

A six-run third inning broke the game open for the Wolverines (11-6) as they continued their offensive streak with 16 hits and gave underclassmen playing time.

Five Wolverines had multi-hit games with centerfielder Eric Rose pacing them with three.

Yesterday's game was the first this season where both a freshman catcher and pitcher started for the Wolverines. Freshman Chris Berset caught for the Wolverines and Eric Katzman pitched four innings to earn his first win, striking out five batters in the process.

"It was good to see Eric have some success," Michigan coach Rich Maloney said. "We think he has the potential to be a good pitcher for us . quite honestly, I'm not jumping up and down thrilled (about Katzman's performance) - but it's a step in the right direction."

On his 20th birthday, third baseman Adam Abraham went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Recknagel scored twice for the Wolverines, with a third run credited to pinch runner Tim Kalczynski after Recknagel left the game with a sore hamstring as a "precaution." Recknagel said the incident wouldn't affect his status for this weekend's series against Northwestern.

Junior Derek VanBuskirk pinch-hit in the sixth inning and hit a two-run homer, his first since returning from injury during last weekend's series.

"I was going up there to hit the ball hard, and whatever happened, happened," VanBuskirk said. "Obviously, I'm not 100 percent yet, so if I hit the ball on the ground, I wouldn't really be able to run it out hard."

Against Northwestern this weekend, Michigan hopes to avoid a repeat of last year's series when it dropped three of four against the Wildcats in Ann Arbor.

"The first 17 games were all good preparation for the Big Ten," Maloney said. "Now, we start 0-0, so we're no better and no worse. We have to start all over again."