The Michigan baseball team said “Aloha” to Hawaii this weekend and came home with more than just experience in warm weather. The 19th-ranked Wolverines (11-3) swept the Rainbow Warriors in a four-game set with single victories Thursday and Friday and a doubleheader sweep Saturday.
Thursday, a 6-0 victory against Hawaii’s ace, Brendan Hornung, set the tone for the weekend with a combination of clutch hitting and shutdown pitching.
Senior Cody Bruder had two singles and an RBI against Hornung, his high school teammate, to contribute to the Wolverines’ 14-hit performance. Sophomore right-hander Oliver Jaskie did the rest, shutting out the Rainbow Warriors in 5.2 innings pitched.
Junior left-hander Brett Adcock took the mound Friday, hoping to improve his 2.08 earned-run average in his third start of the season. Though he trusted his teammates, Adcock took care of most of the business himself by striking out 12 in seven innings of work and allowing just two hits.
With a 4-1 lead, two outs and nobody on in the ninth, the Wolverines were on their way to another easy win. But as Bryan Pall struck out the 18th Rainbow Warrior of the game, the ball got past the catcher and allowed the runner to reach first base.
Hawaii didn’t let its fortunate bounce go to waste. After a walk and two infield hits left the bases loaded, a two-run single to right field tied the game at four.
At this point, the crowd was rocking, and Michigan was on its heels.
“That’s, I think, as loud as a stadium can get,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “For a college baseball atmosphere, it was outstanding.”
If not for an “unbelievable” behind-the-back toss by sophomore catcher Drew Lugbauer to Pall to nab a runner trying to score on a wild pitch, Hawaii would have walked off with the win.
In its early-season games so far, Michigan has not been accustomed to such adversity.
“It was a pretty big punch that we had to endure,” Bakich said.
But Bakich was proud of how his team responded. In the top of the 10th, Michigan was not fazed by the crowd noise, as senior outfielder Matt Ramsay belted a leadoff double and came around to score on a base hit from junior catcher Harrison Wenson. Junior right-hander Keith Lehmann struck out the final two Hawaii batters to seal the deal, 5-4.
“Whenever you give up a lead in the ninth, it’s always extremely hard to come back and win in extras,” Bruder said. “But that speaks to the kind of guys we have on our team and the toughness that we exude. I think it was good to get that adversity under our belts this early so we know we can do it in the future.”
A quick turnaround had the Wolverines back on the field at noon on Saturday. But the offense couldn’t spring off of its emotional extra-inning win from the previous night, as Hawaii left hander Alex Hatch retired 10 consecutive batters to start the game.
A strong breeze blew in from right field all weekend, and neither team was able to hit a single home run in the series. Michigan had to bunt, steal bases and be opportunistic at the plate in order to secure the final two wins.
Down 2-1 in the fifth inning of the first game, freshman Ako Thomas laid down a suicide squeeze to score speedy junior Johnny Slater. Later in the game, clutch hitting from Wenson and Brewer broke the game open in the eighth. The Wolverines went on to win that game, 9-4.
In the final game of the day, Michigan scored first and never gave up the lead, jumping out in front 5-1 by the top of the fifth inning. Senior left-hander Evan Hill struck out seven, leading Michigan to a 5-3 victory.
Michigan’s 11 wins through its first 14 games marks its best start under Bakich, but the Wolverines say they aren’t worrying about their record this early in the season. They have been successful in that goal early on, as another sweep has the team having a blast.