The Michigan baseball team’s inconsistency is catching up with it and it’s catching up fast.
Though the Wolverines took 2-of-3 games against Illinois last weekend, they lost their second straight midweek game on their own field, this time against Eastern Michigan, which is last in the Mid-American Conference standings.
Michigan has been unpredictable, and its cold bats and unfocused defense have prevented the team from following the script.
Bakich preaches his team’s sole goal is to win a Big Ten Championship, and the Wolverines will have to sweep this weekend against Purdue if they want to be back on track toward the conference title — one they haven’t earned since 2008.
Friday, Michigan (6-6 Big Ten, 16-20-1 overall) will begin its three-game slate against the Boilermakers (3-6, 8-24) in West Lafayette. If the Wolverines can clean up the inconsistencies, they could take the series for themselves.
“We are way too inconsistent right now, with great performances, average performances and then a bad showing,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “We need to be trending upwards — we did that against Illinois, and then we have a setback against Eastern Michigan.
“Our biggest opponent is ourselves.”
There have been too many discrepancies across the board for Michigan, and with the end of the season looming, it’s more important than ever to clean up the mess.
First there is the pitching, which started slow this year and has taken baby steps toward where it needs to be for reliability.
The Wolverines have gotten their most consistent performance on the mound from sophomore left-hander Evan Hill, who has put up an impressive 1.93 ERA in Big Ten play and will start for Michigan in Friday’s game. Senior catcher Cole Martin will be his batterymate, and together, the two could form the defensive resistance the Wolverines need to build for a win.
But a stalwart defense can only get Michigan so far in the conference. This season, the Wolverines’ hit-or-miss offense has been their downfall when they are unable to string together quality at-bats and rally behind strong starting pitching — in Friday’s game against the Illini, Hill allowed only one run but Michigan was shut out, tallying just six hits and leaving six runners stranded.
“Hopefully we can get back on the horse and trend upwards again this weekend,” Bakich said. “We need to stop having as many setbacks along the way and start playing our best baseball as the season is progressing and moving towards the second half of conference play.”
Wednesday against Eastern Michigan, junior first baseman Kyle Jusick was the only one to make a dent in the Eagles’ defense with a two-run bomb to right field, and Michigan’s insipid offense left 11 runners stranded on base.
Fortunately for the Wolverines, the Boilermakers rank at the bottom of almost every statistic in the Big Ten and have no star players that stand out, with only one batting over .300. Left-hander Jordan Minch, Friday’s starter, is second in the conference with five losses.
“Purdue isn’t going to give us anything we haven’t already seen somewhere along the way,” Bakich said.
This weekend’s series could be the fresh start Michigan needs. Purdue is certainly of a lower caliber than what the Wolverines have seen thus far in conference play. With just three conference series left in the season, Michigan could hit a turning point and head in the right direction to becoming champions.
But for that to happen, there’s no room for error and the inconsistency must vanish.
If the Wolverines don’t win the series against the Boilermakers, they’ll be going home empty-handed at the end of the regular season.
“The goal is to be firing on all cylinders here moving into late April, May and June,” Bakich said. “We got to have more consistency from top to bottom.”