The Michigan baseball team has struggled to get any semblance of consistency from its pitchers. All season long, Wolverines coach Tracy Smith and pitching coach Brock Huntzinger have searched for someone to step up, and oftentimes, they’ve given inexperienced pitchers the nod on the mound.

For one of the first times all season, Michigan (23-21 overall) held it down on the mound when its inexperienced arms pitched, taking down Long Beach State (20-20-1), 5-4, earning its first series sweep of the season.

“We (found) a way to win,” Smith said. “And so that’s kind of what today was. … A lot of time we get the right play. We get the big play at the right time. And I just love that guys are coming together on that.”

Freshman right-hander Sachem Ramos got the call to start, signaling the beginning of a bullpen day for the Wolverines. This season, a bullpen day has meant a poor day on the mound was imminent, and the batters would have to scrape out a win. But Michigan’s efforts on the bump on Sunday thwarted this trend.

Despite walking two batters in the first inning, Ramos made it out unscathed, partially due to a diving catch by graduate right fielder Stephen Hrustich to register the third out. Even though the Dirtbags made plenty of hard contact at the plate, Ramos did just enough to keep runs off the scoreboard. His second inning efforts were quite similar to his first, as Long Beach State continued to knock on the door but couldn’t break through.

While Ramos did enough to blank the Dirtbags, Huntzinger had seen enough after a walk to lead off the third inning. In his place, freshman right-hander Dylan Vigue took the ball. And though he fell out of the starting rotation and hadn’t pitched in two weeks, he wasn’t fazed. Vigue struck out two batters in the inning, blanking Long Beach State once again.

Vigue’s strong day continued into the following three innings, striking out another batter and keeping runners off base. And when the Dirtbags registered baserunners, they weren’t there for long. In the fourth inning, Vigue picked off a Long Beach State runner to end the inning. By the time Vigue let up a run in the sixth, the Wolverines had already broken through with four of their own thanks to homeruns from both junior catcher Will Rogers and Hrustich. 

“With (Vigue) it’s just throw the ball right down the middle,” Rogers said. “Most guys like we’ll go setup away and I’ll be on the outside corner, inside corner. With (Vigue’s) stuff like if he just throws the ball down the middle, it’s (already) moving so much all over the place. That’s really all he needs to do.”

In particular, Vigue’s slider was automatic, resulting in two strikeouts to help him get out of a sixth inning jam. In six innings of work, Vigue recorded his longest outing of his young career, throwing 100 pitches in the process. Throughout the season, it’s been a struggle for Vigue to pitch deep into games. But against the Dirtbags, that simply wasn’t the case.

“What we wanted to do is we wanted to see (Dylan) coming out of the (bull)pen,” Smith said. “This was big. We set that up. … We thought he was going to be a major part of this thing today. And he was. So if we don’t have him doing what he’s doing for six innings, we’re probably not sitting here with the win. “

By the time junior right-hander Ricky Kidd came in during the ninth inning, Ramos and Vigue had done more than enough to get the win. So when two Long Beach State singles scored two runs, Michigan still had a 5-4 lead.

Overall, the Wolverines had one of their strongest games of the year on the mound. But instead of coming from one of its established pitchers, Ramos and Vigue stepped up. Despite Ramos and Vigue entering the game with a 9.00 and 7.79 ERA, respectively, the pair were dialed in on the mound. Even when the two walked batters, which occurred at a high clip, they were able to get enough ground balls and strikeouts to correct their errors.

And in an unexpected fashion, Michigan’s bullpen day was successful.