The Wolverines put runners on base with walks and hit-by-pitches, advanced those runners on wild pitches and stolen bases and kept them alive on fielders’ choices and errors. In a weekend series that was closer than anticipated at times, much of the Wolverines’ success came when they were able to capitalize on their opponents’ mistakes.
The Wolverines were holding onto a 3-1 lead that had just been cut into by an RBI single by infielder Shawn Goosenberg. With two outs catcher Michael Trautwein ripped a grounder which passed a diving senior infielder Jimmy Kerr, but senior infielder Ako Thomas had him covered. Thomas’ dive was successful as he fielded the ball and tossed it to first for the out. Thomas effectively ended Northwestern’s comeback bid as the Michigan baseball team (26-11 overall, 6-3 Big Ten) won 4-1 over the Wildcats (16-18, 5-5) on Saturday afternoon.
Despite some early fielding difficulties which created an early deficit, the Michigan baseball team pulled itself together in the second half of the game Wednesday evening to best the Bowling Green State Falcons, 10-5.
Few anticipated what followed. Michigan dropped the first two games of the series, 10-5 and 10-4, with shaky performances from usually-dominant Nos. 1 and 2 starters, junior left-hander Tommy Henry and junior right-hander Karl Kauffman. The Wolverines avoided a sweep in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, beating the Buckeyes, 6-2.
Last season, Jordan Brewer was playing against the likes of Dyersburg State and Wabash Valley College. The junior outfielder transferred from Lincoln Trail College, a community college of 1,031 people based in rural Robinson, Ill. — to Michigan last year. The expectations on paper would usually be low for a player making the jump from JUCO to a major Division I program, but coach Erik Bakich had other ideas in the preseason.
Salter ended up making the most of the opportunity for the Wolverines. He notched a single and two RBI on a sacrifice fly and a sacrifice bunt as well as a solid performance behind the plate in No. 24 Michigan’s 6-4 victory over the Sycamores.
With a five-and-a-half hour drive back to Terre Haute ahead of Indiana State on Wednesday evening, even a shortened seven-inning game wasn’t enough to risk pushing up against their firm 7:30 departure deadline. In sharp contrast to yesterday’s hard-fought 8-7 loss –– only its second home loss of the year –– today’s matchup saw Michigan manage to hold their lead after a slow start and beat the Sycamores, 6-4.
This sharp fielding was on display throughout Michigan’s 8-0 win in the final game of its weekend series against the Golden Gophers Sunday afternoon. The Wolverines were eager to round out the series on a high note after hard-fought games Friday and Saturday that ended 4-6 and 5-3, respectively.
That ended up being the final score, as the Michigan baseball team (21-8 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) topped Minnesota (13-15, 6-2) on on Saturday afternoon.
It was a heavyweight pitching battle Friday.
In one corner was Michigan ace junior left-hander Tommy Henry, coming in with a dominant 0.76 earned-run average and a 6-1 record, totaling 57 strikeouts on and just seven walks.