LANSING — Gritty relief pitching by sophomore Brad Seddon and a potent seventh inning propelled Michigan to a 13-5 victory and a weekend sweep against Michigan State at Lansing’s Oldsmobile Park on Sunday.
- Michigan Baseball
- Sophomore Brad Seddon was lights out in his six innings of work. (MIKE HULSEBUS/Daily)
The four-game throttle puts Michigan (8-9 Big Ten, 26-12 overall) in seventh place in the Big Ten.
Michigan used its typical “small ball” style to manufacture its first three runs in Sunday’s game. But in the seventh inning, the Wolverines went big.
Kyle Bohm started the inning with a double off the glove of Spartan third basemen Alan Cattrysse. Junior Jeff Kunkel blasted the next pitch over 400 feet to right-centerfield for a triple, knotting the game at four. Then, junior Mike Schmidt crushed the following pitch to the same spot for another triple, pushing the Wolverines ahead 5-4.
Bohm added a two-RBI single, and Kunkel blasted a two-run dinger over the right field fence, before the inning finally ended.
But it was Seddon who ultimately kept Michigan alive, relieving junior Drew Taylor in the third inning. Taylor surrendered just one hit but walked four batters and plunked two, creating a 4-0 deficit for Seddon.
Seddon, who had pitched just 5 2/3 innings all season, mowed through the Spartan lineup. He went six innings, yielding just four hits and one run on the way to his first career win.
“It’s the first time in a long time I’ve thrown that many pitches,” Seddon said. “My arm feels good right now, but it will probably be a little sore tomorrow morning.”
Michigan State had no answers for Seddon’s nasty array of off-speed pitches.
“They were having a lot of trouble with my changeups and sliders,” Seddon said.
With a team-best 1.56 ERA, Seddon is a viable option out of a bullpen that has struggled mightily in conference play.
“I didn’t get many chances early on in the season,” Seddon said. “I just waited for an opportunity, and today I made the most of it. Hopefully, I’ll get some more innings in the future.”
While Seddon kept the Spartans at bay, Bohm and Kunkel took batting practice against the Spartan pitching staff. Bohm and Kunkel combined for six RBI and five runs on seven hits.
The weekend sweep was crucial for Michigan, who missed three conference games last weekend due to inclement weather. Since the Big Ten does not allow for make-up games, it put the Wolverines — 4-9 at the time — in an even deeper hole.
“After the Ohio State games were cancelled (last weekend), we were a little down,” Bohm said. “We thought we could have gotten at least three out of four from them. But to come here and get four out of four — it’s huge. We just need wins to get into the tournament and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Michigan won the first three games by scores of 9-7, 8-1 and 7-6, respectively.
Since the Wolverines need to finish in the top six to qualify for the Big Ten tournament, the four-game sweep puts them in a favorable position to do so. Penn State and Northwestern are both 10-10 and Purdue, who Michigan hosts next weekend, is 9-7. A tournament championship would give Michigan an automatic berth to the NCAA regionals.
“Coming into this series with a 4-9 (conference) record, we had 16 games to play,” Coach Rich Maloney said. “Now there are 12 games left and we’re 8-9 and on the cusp (of making the Big Ten tournament). I don’t know how the other teams did, but we’re closer now then we were on Friday.”
Michigan’s four-game sweep was its third of the season and its first in the Big Ten since 2001. It marked the first time they swept the Spartans since 1999.