“We got exposed,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “We couldn’t hold (Texas Tech) down in the bullpen. They sped the game up on us defensively, they ran out one mid-to-upper 90s pitcher after the next and we weren’t able to handle it as well as we would have liked to.”
In the Michigan baseball team’s second midweek game of the season on Tuesday, it hoped to avoid the same pitching follies against Western Michigan that it had in the first.
Initially, it wasn’t obvious if it could.
It wasn’t just a way for players to stay warm after returning to Ann Arbor from their two sunny series in California and Florida. Michigan is taking part in “mustache March,” a campaign against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
In the second game of its home opening series, the Wolverines completely overwhelmed Manhattan College, 23-2, with strong hitting and a consistent ability to capitalize on the Jaspers’ many mistakes.
Following an impressive win against No. 2 UCLA, as well as disappointing losses against Southern California, No. 19 Oklahoma State and Long Beach State, the Wolverines are ready to move on and smooth out the inconsistencies that were on display last week. Four consecutive matchups against Manhattan College offer an opportunity to do just that.
The California trip now behind them, there are just as many question marks swirling around the Wolverines. They defeated Northridge handily in the first three games of the series, but dropped the fourth, suffering their first loss of the season. Michigan defeated No. 2 UCLA, which Bakich called “maybe one of the best teams in the country,” but ended the trip on a two-game losing streak, falling to Southern California and Oklahoma State.
Michigan’s traditional pillars have been their defense and their pitching. Thus far this season, their hitting has been a pleasant surprise.
However, in the Dodgertown Classic, the relief pitching was a mixed bag, and the bats fell flat. The Wolverines have lost four out of its last five on the West Coast, and the increased competition is a good measuring stick for Michigan against warm-climate teams with more repetitions under their belt.
The extra-inning loss proved to exemplify Michigan’s performance over the weekend. An impressive outing by the starting pitchers — all three gave up just two earned runs — and error-free defense kept the Wolverines in the games despite a struggling offense scoring two runs on Saturday and one run on Sunday, dropping two of three games to USC and Oklahoma State while beating No. 2 UCLA.
The team’s winning three-game series against California State University-Northridge was punctuated by a 5-2 loss Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday afternoon, the team lost again to Long Beach State 8-7. A planned matchup against UC-Irvine on Wednesday evening was cancelled due to rain.
That changed on Friday when Thomas knocked one out of the park in the first at-bat of the seventeenth-ranked Wolverines’ three-game series against California State University-Northridge. Michigan won two out of the three games, beating the Matadors 2-0 on Friday and 4-2 in the first contest of a doubleheader on Sunday, but suffered their first loss of the season in the second game, falling to Northridge 5-2.